Ink on Paper
by Whimsical Symphony
Summary: A poor archivist who occasionally works front desk at the Bee Hive wants what every glorified librarian wants: knowledge. Jiggy Pepper doesn't expect answering her questions and listening to her somewhat socially untactful comments to become an even remotely regular experience. [Jiggy / OC ]
1. The Equation's Variable

**Ink on Paper**

_Written by Whimsical Symphony  
_

_Well, hello to the Letter Bee fandom, if anyone decides to read this story. I'm not used to writing for small fandoms at all. But I wish that Letter Bee was more popular - it's such a great work, when it comes to characters and the writing, and the art is wonderful too._

_This is a Jiggy / OC story. I do try to create characters that are likable, but if she's not please let me know. Constructive criticism is welcome, as are all thoughts._

_I also don't know how long updates for this story will take. I planned to post it much later, but I thought what the hell and just decided to do it. _

_As Jiggy is an Express Bee, there is a three week timeskip between the first bit and when they next meet. Can't expect Jiggy to be there all the time while he's off delivering letters. Don't know how long his journeys usually last, but it does say that he rarely visits the hive since he's always out. Please let me know if I didn't write him accurately. He needs to be cool, since otherwise Zazie wouldn't be a fan of him._

* * *

**Chapter I – The Equation's Variable**

"Here's your bundle of letters." Elsa pulled out Moc Sullivan's bundle of letters from the other ones sorted for Bees, and passed it to the young Letter Bee with a perpetual scowl on his lips. "Have a good time and stay safe."

"Sure," he replied, giving her a blank look, before walking away, letters in hand.

Perhaps this Moc Sullivan thought of her as stupid. Didn't he recognize that she'd said it as a formality? He would be battling plenty of Gaichuu on that route along the way – so he'd neither be safe or have fun, so it wasn't as if she could actually mean it, anyhow.

"Working front desk is so stupid," Elsa grumbled to herself, putting her head down on the wooden desk she sat at. Her head pounded after a hard day of work, and the cool surface of the desk eased the heat building up in her skull a little. "If they got more clerks… then I wouldn't have to."

She wanted to spend time in the libraries like an archivist should, perhaps helping people in Yuusari Central study for the preliminary Bee exams with her knowledge, or find the books they searched for in the vast library. But her duties also included sorting out letters in the large rooms they were kept in, keeping the ones in the cold letter department up to date, and taking over the duties of a front desk person when short-staffed – a rather common occurrence.

But Elsa loved the smell of aging paper and ink, loved all the knowledge about Amberground and Gaichuu found in the Beehive. Even if she disliked dealing with people, with Bees, she questioned with curiosity and _wonder_, about their experiences on the road.

Of course, without wonder, anyone would have clearly lost their sanity in a desolate world like Amberground, with light so close yet so far, and completely unreachable, just teasing those in Yuusari with its presence, and killing those in Yodaka with its distance.

Elsa read and read to keep wondering – keep wondering what lay beyond Yuusari, what knowledge lay in the secretive, unreachable capital of Akatsuki, the only place in Amberground with _light._ Elsa wanted to know, all about what happened during the Day of the Flicker, about spirit amber and the government, the artificial sun: all of it. Unfortunately, as a regular citizen, such knowledge was kept under tight guard.

Even if she couldn't feed herself half the time from menial pay, and got sick often due to tending to two jobs, she wanted to read and read and read, and someday, get transferred to Akatsuki if she worked hard enough and learn there, finally see the capital with her own two eyes.

Elsa wanted to know about this strange world they lived in, so lonely where everyone's hearts only became connected by the words they wrote on paper.

"I'm done my job. I also have letters to drop off."

A little startled, Elsa lifted her head off the desk and wiped the drool that escaped her lips because of her own exhaustion and constant micro-naps she'd taken throughout the day. She met an unfamiliar face and blinked once; a definitely attractive man who looked a bit younger than her – the cool type, she surmised: a sharp gaze, tousled brown hair, and a scar on his face that must've been from a pretty nasty accident – a nice package finished with the Letter Bee uniform. His dingo, a hawk, also made his forearm his perch.

"I see. Please pass them over to me," Elsa told the man, holding out her hand, immediately cleaning up her speech. She needed to, she had no other way. He emptied the contents of his delivery bag on the table, and she decided to sort them later, finding far too many. "I haven't seen your face here before. What is your name so that I may mark down the completion of your deliveries?"

"Jiggy Pepper… Express Bee," he introduced. "This is Harry," he said, lifting his arm to indicate his dingo. Looking at her for a moment, with a gaze that made even her squirm, he said, "I haven't seen your face here either. New?"

"Not _new_, I just don't normally work front desk. I'm an archivist, you see, though I usually do get assigned other duties," she explained to him, calmly marking down the completion of Jiggy Pepper's deliveries. Now that she thought about it, she heard his name plenty of places – the Bees often talked about what an experienced Bee this man was. Not to mention, she remembered that other Bee, Zazie, go on and on about Jiggy to his friends, idolizing this one quite greatly. "And so, because of that, it's quite understandable I've never seen you." Looking up at him for a moment, gauging his reaction and finding none, she sighed and concluded that he was a hard-ass. "Well, I assume you're staying in Yuusari Central for a couple days to relax, correct? We can assign your next deliveries in a short while, Mr. Express Bee."

"Got it… and just Jiggy. 'Mr. Express Bee' doesn't sound right," he said, tasting the words on his tongue.

Smirking deviously for a moment, she placed the tips of her fingers on her cheeks, allowed her eyes to fill with wonder, and (if she even managed) a blush to paint her cheeks. "Is that so, Jiggy? I see why everyone's so crazy about you! I think I might be falling for you a little myself!" He clearly didn't know what to say about that, and so wisely kept his mouth shut and looked away from her. "You're no fun. You do know I'm just joking, right?"

"… I hoped you were," Jiggy said bluntly. He gestured to the binder then. "So, finished then?"

Elsa wondered whether she should have been hurt by his comment. After all he basically said he wouldn't like it if she did have a crush on him. What a funny Letter Bee, she thought with a smile. "Yes, yes, I'm done – impatient Express Bee. Be off, and be sure to relax for your next deliveries. I bet Gaichuu are nasty. And you're away for long periods of time."

Jiggy nodded. "Definitely nasty." Then he turned around and walked to the exit. Looking at her briefly, he sent her a lazy smile and said, "Until next time, Elsa Marchen," before departing with all that mysteriousness of his.

"Thinks he can amaze me by reading my nametag?" Elsa chuckled, amused by this mysterious Bee. "However, I can see why people drool over him." And just as she said that, she saw Zazie, with his friends Connor and Lag. Zazie was blushing and stuttering and looked so excited to see his idol walk out the door.

Zazie whistled. "Dang, I don't know anyone cooler than Jiggy Pepper!"

Some things, Elsa thought with a laugh, would never change. Like those letters Jiggy dropped off, still staring at her with their irritating white envelopes. She'd always have to sort them, always, always, always.

"Starting with the last name letters of _A…_"

* * *

When Jiggy next came to Yuusari Central, three weeks after his last visit, he needed to rest up before his next long journey in a couple of days. He'd grown low on heart from shooting heart bullets and riding his motorcycle, as well as plain old exhausted from travelling around so long. He came into contact with plenty of Gaichuu through his journey through Yodaka, and that had been more than exhausting.

Jiggy remembered the first time he ever faced a Gaichuu during his Letter Bee Exam. Back then, he felt that jolt of fear travel through him just by looking at the Gaichuu, before he remembered that the reason he left Kyrie was to become stronger for Nelli, to protect his little sister and brother, before Nello died.

Now, though not perfect, he at least gave himself props for not freezing at the sight of them, not fearing the fact that he'd become a Gaichuu's next victim. He couldn't afford to. A Letter Bee put everything on the line for his letters. Jiggy also put everything on the line for his sister. He couldn't be weak, not now, not ever.

Lazing around his home had been a nice change for once, rather than driving around delivering mail and fighting Gaichuu. Just like every time he came back, each part of his home looked exactly the same. Sure, he found it lonely to be living alone, but somehow, it comforted him to know that despite his job that turned him into a wayward postman, he always had a place to return to – he didn't actually not have a home, he just barely used it. Now that he thought about it, that might've been the reason he invested so much into his home, spent so much Rin on it and its interior, so that it could feel like more of a home.

Without Nelli though, nothing _really_ felt like home. Perhaps that was why he didn't mind being an Express Bee. He didn't have that many attachments anyway.

Jiggy opened his eyes from the short nap he'd taken when he heard his stomach make a noise of protest. "Suppose it's time to go and get dinner," he muttered, willing himself to get up, off the couch, and exit the house. "Harry, I'll be back." He greeted his dingo who rested on a perch he ordered from some furniture store long ago. He couldn't see Harry in a cage – his partner, his dingo. The bird was free to wander wherever he pleased.

Harry crowed in approval.

He walked through the streets of Yuusari Central slowly from his home to grab himself some dinner, as if to finally break the fast pace he set for his express deliveries, riding on the power of his heart for hours at a time before taking a quick break, then continuing, then stopping off at a random town to use an inn. The weather was a bit chilly, but not what he grew used to while riding from one town to another.

"Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Gobani. I tell you, your bread is delicious! How _do_ you make it so well?"

He recognized that voice. Just as he suspected, the archivist from three weeks ago – he'd remember that red hair and those strange mannerisms anywhere - who sorted his letters talked to the Gobani's, complimenting the bread that Sandra Gobani made before waving and giving them a nice cheerful goodbye. The strange archivist who actually had it in her to tease him about her having a crush on him. Yeah right, he thought then, he knew she'd been joking by just that teasing tone in her voice.

"Ah, Mr. Express Bee. Shouldn't you be resting?" Elsa looked at him with a small smile of greeting. She held a large bag of Mrs. Gobani's bread in her hands. "It's been a while since you came here."

The smell wafted out of the bag and clung to the air, and he couldn't help but remember that the few times he'd tasted Sandra Gobani's bread, it had been fantastic – the texture, the sweet and salty flavours melding into one. He wasn't big into food, but that bread, he couldn't help but compliment.

"It's natural that I only come here every few weeks. And, I could say the same about you," Jiggy pointed out, indicating the giant bags that stuck out like a sore thumb under her eyes. "You look tired. And, I told you, it's Jiggy."

"Jiggy then," she said almost dismissively. "Pointing out a girl's flaws right in front of her, I am shocked," Elsa told him with a small laugh. "Though, one might say you _do_ have a subtle way of going about it."

He could still hear it from the way she talked. Jiggy probably surmised most people didn't hear the fact that she constructed the way she talked bit by bit, word for word, and underneath it all, he could tell that she came from Yodaka. Most people probably thought from the way she spoke, the way she carried herself, that she'd been born in Yuusari, though she spoke even more delicately than here too. But underneath, he heard the original way she spoke. Occasionally, she spoke casually – 'I bet they're nasty' for one, which sounded so undecorated compared to this flamboyant language.

But he know he'd been observant, not many people knew but himself, probably.

"Subtle… just like your speech," Jiggy said with barely contained curiosity. "Why do you talk differently than most from Yodaka?"

Her eyes widened, surprised he'd noticed. "You're sharp." Then, shrugging her shoulders and averting her gaze a little, she looked like she wanted to speak again. Jiggy saw the curious archivist bite her lip, considering what to say next. "That, my dear Express Bee, is a story for another day." When he had been about to open his mouth, she cut him off with a cluck of her tongue. "Before you say it, I'm not a criminal. You have no need to worry – I'm not going to stick a knife in your chest as you sleep. I wouldn't either, because I know you for one, who fights Gaichuu daily, would have no trouble clobbering little ol' me."

"I wasn't going to say you were." Jiggy looked at her – slight, a short shock of red hair, a wardrobe that made her look like a scholar, pencil skirt and white blouse – yeah, not criminal material. "And… I understand there're things you don't want to talk about. We all have those. Just wanted to make an observation since it sounded like you were from Yodaka."

"Mm… is it obvious? It wouldn't be life threatening if it were, but I'd like my work to pay off somewhat…" Elsa questioned him worriedly. She bunched her hands overtop her skirt, crinkling it.

"No… I'm from Yodaka myself. I'm also pretty observant – it's not obvious," Jiggy told her honestly, giving her a reassuring look. Really, he didn't know why she needed to hide it, but supposed she had her reasons. He didn't have any right to know.

"You know what? Come with me. You can share Mrs. Gobani's bread with me today. You probably need dinner, right? Think of it as thanks for the fascinating conversation." Elsa smiled slyly. "You will keep me company, won't you?"

"You barely know me," Jiggy replied bluntly, narrowing his eyes a little, analyzing her further. He didn't know why she insisted, besides maybe the odd possibility that maybe she did like him – he knew people were like that sometimes, but he highly doubted it with her.

"Come now, accept my generosity, spoiled sport. I have bills to pay, so I could have walked right by you and eaten all this delicious bread myself," Elsa snorted, and held the bag up, so that he could smell the delicious scents of Sandra's bread. "Aha, I knew you found it delicious. Now, let's be off then, shall we?"

"Wait… this is your dinner?" Jiggy questioned her, not even the least bit alarmed that she'd chosen to pull him by the sleeve of his Letter Bee uniform.

Just when he said that, he saw the formerly bright expression on her face become somber, somewhat thoughtful; it reminded him of the look that Aria sometimes got these days when she thought about Gauche Suede. Just as immediately as he noticed it, it disappeared.

"Not everyone can afford a good dinner, Jiggy Pepper, even in Yuusari," Elsa said simply, leading him off to somewhere. "I'm from Yodaka. It's a given that I grew up poor – don't let my clothes fool you."

Sure, Jiggy knew that. He'd grown up in poverty himself back in Kyrie. But, he didn't expect someone who looked so put together to have to worry about meals. But a poor person could get other meals but bread, he knew it. Puzzling indeed. Regardless, not for the first time, he wondered what everyone in Akatsuki even did, so isolated, while so many people suffered.

* * *

"Prayer Hill?"

Jiggy looked at Elsa, who promptly sat down, pulled out a bun and began to munch on it. She looked at the artificial sun in the distance curiously. Jiggy wondered if she, like most people in Yuusari, wanted to reach out to that light so far away. When he first came to Yuusari Central, he remembered how much closer that light seemed to him, how different it seemed from the complete darkness he lived in while residing in Kyrie. Then, when he thought about that, he felt even guiltier for leaving Nelli behind in Kyrie – felt the permanent loss in his chest, that emptiness when he heard Nello died. His little brother, the person he was supposed to protect.

"Didn't figure you for the religious type," Jiggy voiced, reluctantly sitting beside her, though quite far away. He didn't know her after all.

"I'm not. I just wonder…" Elsa trailed off, before shaking her head and turning to him. Her specialty, she decided, to question him about his adventures, since she couldn't go on any on her own. "So, how is it fighting a Gaichuu? I know in theory the goal is to find a break in its armour and send a heart bullet into it, so it resounds within the empty shell of the Gaichuu. But I do want to know how it is really? Frightening? Seems like it… but Gaichuu really do seem like sad beings. I wonder how it is, having no heart, no memories, yet having a physical shell that continues to _move."_

Jiggy wondered what she'd actually been about to say. And how the conversation became so different.

He noted that she did in fact become incredibly animated when talking about Gaichuu and theory of all things. Somehow, it felt as if he were being interrogated, but then that wide-eyed look others, waiting for his words shoved that thought right out the window. Weird, he thought, most people didn't like talking about Gaichuu at all, including himself, but her curiosity far surpassed that. He thought that the girl and Thunderland Jr. might become great friends one day.

"It's more an aspect of having your dingo distract it or lead it around to showing its weak spot. Harry does that for me and I shoot it with my Shindanjuu. Some are easy, some are difficult," he explained, then shrugged. People always did say that he wasted as few words as possible. To appease her though, since she clearly expected more out of him, he reluctantly said, "Don't think of them as sad. They're empty, that's that. And they kill a lot of people, eat a lot of hearts. They're not really _alive_."

"I'm sorry… I shouldn't have said anything…" She looked at him apologetically. Jiggy noticed as well, that she really must've been shaken by asking that question – she sounded almost normal just then, like any old person, like someone back in Kyrie would have spoken. "I'm told I can be insensitive with my questions. I… that was terrible of me. It's just… I want to know. But I'm a coward – hell if I can do what you do." She pushed the bag of bread toward him and he silently took a bun from the bag. "Have you ever just wanted to know? That's why I came to Yuusari, by pure chance of course. Not every citizen is lucky enough to get a crossing permit. And I promised that I'd know, everything, find out everything. I've always been a bit of a bookworm, though that leads to me irritating people quite a bit, just like I did with you. I'm hardly good at interacting with people."

"You seem to interact just fine to me." Jiggy gave her a look. "You complimented Sandra Gobani for her skill at making bread. That's called interacting well."

"For every person I compliment, I piss off just as many. My apologies, Jiggy," Elsa told him with a sheepish smile. "I'm incorrigible, really. Thank you for telling me your experiences though. They were fascinating."

Jiggy shook his head and said, "I'm not thin-skinned. You just asked a question – might've been a sensitive topic for most people these days, that's all." He looked at her, averting her gaze, mulling over his words, before he continued, "Knowing is a hard thing to even deal with in Amberground. There're a lot of secrets."

Elsa nodded in agreement, taking a bite of her bread. "That is so. Do you know what I first wanted to know? I wanted to know the duty of a Letter Bee, what makes people so happy about receiving a letter, what makes Letter Bees so willing to risk their lives to deliver them? What makes letters themselves so special?" She fiddled with her fingers, a gesture done purely out of anxiety. "Albeit, it has nothing to do with history, but I feel it's important."

"If you get a letter, you'll understand," Jiggy advised, intrigued by the line of questioning she'd chosen. Yet, still confused. Anyone should have known the joys of getting a letter. Even a Letter Bee like himself felt it occasionally, like when Nelli sent him one.

"You see, I've never received one." Elsa shut up quickly after that, and looked at the ground of prayer hill mumbling, "My apologies. Come now, I suppose you need to get to bed, and I must get going as well." She looked at Jiggy Pepper and smirked, tapping him lightly in the shoulder then, playing the part of a flustered girl. "Oh you, you're so charming! I might be falling for you."

Jiggy thought that perhaps he shouldn't bring up what she said. Not receiving a letter? Practically unheard of. Somehow, he pitied her for it.

"Cut the crap," Jiggy told her bluntly, peeling her arm off his shoulder. When he looked off to the artificial sun again, and the mysterious capital of Akatsuki below it, he wondered if one day, everyone could feel that light.

"As you wish…" Elsa responded mockingly, having another bun to satiate her hunger. Standing up, she pat Jiggy on the shoulder once in an amiable manner, then picked up the brown paper bag. "Thank you for the splendid conversation. I do think I'll be talking to you more if you always answer my need to know like this. Goodbye, and stay safe. Those Gaichuu must be hungrier than the people I grew up with back in Yodaka," she smiled bitterly – quite a morbid joke, if he did say so himself.

Jiggy knew then, social tact didn't exist to her.

"Alright… take care too, until next time," Jiggy responded to her goodbye. Then, without a word, like wind, she disappeared, almost as if she'd never been there in the first place. Randomly inviting him to eat with her, then randomly leaving. A strange woman. "Never gotten a letter, huh?"

* * *

That night, Elsa didn't sleep after working her second job. She stayed in the Bee Hive Library and searched through all the books offered, about Akatsuki, Amberground and last but not least, books on psychology as to why people seemed to enjoy letters so much in Amberground. Of course, she could speculate, but like Jiggy said, if she got one, she'd truly understand.

"Shame I have no one to send me one…"


	2. A Letter of Just Appeasement

**Ink on Paper**

_Written by Whimsical Symphony_

_So, I actually got around to writing the second chapter. Thanks to everyone who read this. Again, I'm not certain when my next update will be. Real life has sort of gotten in the way. The asterisk in this marks the beginning and end of Elsa's rant. I applaud you if you can get through all of it. _

_EDIT 14/11/2014: Fixed the errors that were sloppy and I never got around to fixing. Also changed Elsa's dialogue a bit and made it so her speech pattern is more consistent. Otherwise, everything else is the same._

* * *

**Chapter II – A Letter of Just Appeasement**

During her break at work, Elsa visited Mana at the Relaxation Lounge. Only Letter Bees went, and she hoped none would be there now. Mana became her friend, only because of the vast amounts of time she spent in the library, how little sleep she ran off of, and how stressed she became as a result. The woman knew just what herbs to use to relax her, knew just how to calm her down. She did have quite a sweet disposition.

And Elsa admired her resilience very much, continuing with a scientific career without the slightest bit of sight left in her eyes. She went completely blind, and yet her curiosity still drove her beyond lengths not even the average person would attempt to surpass.

"Ah, come to visit me, Elsa?" Mana Jones asked when she heard Elsa enter the lounge. Somehow, she always knew it was her too, despite her never saying anything first.

"How did you know it was me, Mana?" Elsa asked, amazed with the young woman in front of her. "You always seem to know…"

Mana looked at her, as if surprised she'd asked such a thing. Most people avoided the topic of her sight in general, deeming it a sensitive topic. But since she knew Elsa, the woman always spoke her mind, no matter how socially untactful. She found it odd, even disliked it occasionally, but now, she was grateful that the woman didn't treat her differently due to her blindness.

"Oh, well, you always have the scent of ink on your clothes, as if you've been writing and reading. And, occasionally, you have the scent of Sandra Gobani's bread on you. That's how I know." Mana told her matter-of-fact, and promptly got some herbs and oils, and various ingredients to relax her. "Sit then, and we can talk." She gestured towards the couch facing the table while she moved about the room, moving this and that, to get things ready.

"I see, your sense of smell truly is wonderful." Elsa laughed and sat on the couch, one leg crossed over her other. "Who says you need sight when you have a sense of smell like that, and hearing too."

Mana simply smiled and sat down beside her after setting up the apparatus. Immediately her muscles relaxed as the scent of flowers, green meadows, a life only possible if they had sun, filled her nose, travelled through her – an etherizing incense.

"You work miracles, Mana. I feel so wonderful already…" she trailed off, closing her eyes an basking in this new experience.

"Nice? It's a combination of Resinbalm, Helenseed and Pine Needles. All are studied for their relaxing qualities." Mana looked at the woman who drowned in the scents of all three herbs. She appeared to be thinking about something – she always did, really, always lacking sleep because of such an overactive mind. "What are you thinking of?"

Elsa looked at her and frowned. "I remembered that I told Jiggy Pepper that I'd never once received a letter before, couldn't understand truly why people felt such _joy _when getting one. I don't know what I was thinking – I must have made him quite uncomfortable, inviting him to eat with me a while ago."

Elsa looked at the expression on Mana's face settle slightly into a strange sort of disbelief before it dropped entirely. Mana found herself surprised that someone actually invited Jiggy out and had a real conversation with him. She knew, due to some of his visits at the relaxation lounge, that he was quite caring, quite understanding, but the fact that he spoke few words often obscured that. Despite his lack of words, he wasn't aloof as most people seemed to think.

"Jiggy has a reputation for just being admired from afar," Mana admitted, thinking back to the man she remembered with brown hair and a scar – before her accident, that is. She heard many whispers about him in the halls of the Bee Hive, all admirable of course, but perhaps slightly isolating for him. "He might be thankful for your company."

"He probably thought of me as a strange woman… one who has never received a letter. I can understand why he is admired but not approached though – he does have a bit of an aura that tells others to back away," Elsa mused, remembering that he looked like he always kept to himself. "Regardless, he humoured me and answered my pesky questions. That must mean something."

"You know… what I learned is you'll always be surprised by people. You can't judge. I did that far too soon with Dr. Thunderland… and I never thought Gauche Suede would help me as he did. I would like to thank him one day…" Mana said slowly, remembering that kind Letter Bee whose actions allowed her to keep her job.

For the Head Bee, he said, there was no letter he couldn't deliver: he wanted to be that Bee one day. Mana was also a friend, so he needed to go to those lengths for her. Most would call him a fool, someone who bent over backwards for people. Mana didn't think he'd ever travel that far and back in only a week to deliver a letter, nearly killing himself in the process, and all for someone he barely knew. And he did it all arriving within half an hour of the hearing, a tired smile on his face as he let her and Thunderland hear the good news, all before he collapsed in exhaustion, like a rag doll.

The mood turned somber when thinking about him, how Mana would never be able to thank him.

Neither of them talked after that, deciding to focus on the scent of the herbs instead. Some thoughts were too dark to entertain, too sad. In Amberground, most thoughts treaded into dangerous territory.

When Elsa reached her poor man's home with her poor man's dinner, she really didn't expect Harry, Jiggy's dingo perched outside her windowsill. She knew he'd gone on his Express Bee journeys again, so she had to wonder what his dingo was doing back in Yuusari Central, let alone at her windowsill, pecking the glass a little… well, peckishly, not to go on a punning spree or anything.

Hurriedly, she opened the window, and Harry flew inside, landing on the small desk she often used to work. Then she noticed what Harry had tied to his leg – a scroll of paper.

"For me?" Elsa asked, confused, pointing to herself.

Harry squawked to affirm her conclusion, and also possibly to call her an idiot. Her lips quirked as she thought of how similar Jiggy's dingo was to him. Stretching out his foot idly, Elsa untied the scroll, unraveled it, and found it to be a _letter. _She began to read with interest, and also, with a strangely warm feeling in her tummy.

_Hello Elsa Marchen,_

_I had a little time at the inn I stayed at and decided to write this letter. How are you doing – still eating bread for dinner?_

_Probably better than what I eat on the road, anyway. As an Express Bee, good food is a luxury._

_I thought about what you said about Gaichuu. Maybe they are sad – only when referring to their fate though. Can't pity something that's just a shell, one that kills a lot of people too. All Letter Bees shoot heart bullets, and enough and we'd become like Gaichuu, sort of – no memories or anything. That's always a fear._

_Every time I go to Yodaka, I remember how hard it was to adjust to Yuusari. The sun's so far away here. You can barely see it. And the number of Gaichuu compared to Yuusari can't be compared. You'd know, wouldn't you?_

_To be honest, I don't know why I wrote this. I don't write many letters – I only deliver them. You can probably see from this that I'm not good with 'interacting with people' like you said about yourself. I'm not good with words. Anyway, I hope that you get something from reading this letter. Maybe I just wanted you to know what getting a letter felt like._

_Take care until next time,_

_Jiggy Pepper_

_P.S If you want to send me one back, feel free. Harry knows my entire delivery schedule, though it'd probably be better to give him something to eat before you let him go._

"So… this is what receiving a letter feels like," Elsa mumbled to herself, holding the paper closed to her. "Thank you, Jiggy Pepper."

A smile spread across her lips, knowing now she'd discovered something new, now she finally knew what getting a letter felt like. Perhaps now she'd start to understand why Letter Bees risked their lives in order to deliver these pieces of paper. The letter seemed more open than how he spoke in real life. Somehow, Elsa knew he'd enjoy talking more on paper than in real life. He really wasn't good with words, not at all, but it still seemed like him. He was honest, to a fault, couldn't just say he felt like writing a letter to her – he clearly wanted to just get her to experience that feeling. Surprisingly, Jiggy turned out to be a very caring person. This seemed contrary to what people believed of him due to his standoffishness.

"I will write one back. He went to all this trouble, didn't he, Harry?" Elsa asked the bird, who crowed in reply. She quickly pulled out a sheet of paper and a pencil, and grabbed some bread for Harry to feast on while she wrote. Sitting down in her chair, and tapping on her chin with her pen, she pondered over what to write. "I say I'm better with words than he is, so I'll write a fantastic letter!" She looked determined, but the blank page glared at her intimidatingly, she didn't know how to begin.

_Good day Jiggy Pepper, _she began, wracking her brain over what to write. Elsa then decided to respond to what he said, as honest as she could manage.

_Thank you for sending me this letter. It's my first experience writing one, as well as receiving one. I feel I have learned something new from this, though perhaps a few more exchanges will lead me to find out what I learned. It _is_ a little exhausting, knowing you learned a new tidbit of information, but don't know what you learned. Deceptive and nasty little buggers, always escaping your brain._

_And yes, I had Sandra Gobani's bread for dinner. Different variety, just as delicious, and fit for a poor person like myself._

_I'm glad my offensive statement caused someone to think. I truly didn't mean that I pity them, only that their fate is sad. They probably weren't like that before. They remind me of the Spirit Insects of ancient times. In fact, it would make sense if eventually, they became Gaichuu – empty bodies searching for a heart they lost. But that's only a theory I have seen proposed by many a scholar. Perhaps I should stay away from history and theory in this letter, wouldn't you say?_

_It's understandable for Letter Bees to have that fear. Imagine the terror of becoming like those you fight. It reminds me more to mention to you to stay safe, Jiggy Pepper. I wouldn't like to see you lose your heart. Especially not so because you prove so amusing, and so caring to send me this letter. Fight, but don't overexert yourself, yes?_

_Yodaka was always dark, no sunlight at all. Yuusari is quite different and it feels almost homey and comfortable where Yodaka provided no such comforts, couldn't truly. I found it quite difficult to adjust too, and I nearly always stared at the artificial sun in the distance, so much closer where it felt as if I could reach out and touch it. But of course, Amberground doesn't work that way. It is unfortunate that the light is only for those in the capital. I do not understand why such terrible class divides exist._

_You seem quite good with words to me, provide some good information to talk about. I appreciate this gesture of yours. I now know what receiving a letter feels like. Perhaps with more time, I will understand why Bees risk their lives, and how happy simple exchanges can make me. I do hope you bring me more joy, Jiggy Pepper._

_Thank you, and be safe,_

_Elsa Marchen_

_P.S Harry also quite enjoyed Mrs. Gobani's bread._

She signed the letter and looked at the words with a critical eye, and noticed a terribly embarrassing flaw. The last paragraph sounded almost like… flirting. Shaking her head, Elsa decided that she probably imagined things, and if he did in fact take it as flirting, she'd pass it off as the – 'well, I've fallen for you', joke again.

Taking a small bit of twine from her stationary drawer, she turned to Harry who finished his meal, and began to tie the letter to his leg. Then, she scratched the dingo on the head with a small smile.

"Be safe, Harry. You are quite a sweet bird," Elsa told him. "I do hope you found the bread satisfying."

Harry crowed once in response and flew out the open window into the night to deliver the letter to Jiggy. Elsa watched the bird fly until his form became too small to distinguish among the grey clouds in the dark sky.

* * *

Jiggy didn't know what possessed him to write that letter – he'd been honest about that. He never considered himself a generous soul, and he didn't know Elsa Marchen well either. He supposed that Lag Seeing rubbed off on him a little, saving his little sister and all, going to such lengths for everyone he delivered a letter to. He didn't really care all that much, but just the look on Elsa's face when she said she'd never gotten a letter before got to him. Maybe he was getting soft for taking pity on her like that. He wrote whatever came to mind, and nothing useful. And for someone who wanted to _know _well he _wondered _if she found what she sought.

He wondered if it all started in the last town he'd been in – Lunar Town, a small town on the outskirts of Yodaka, aptly named for its near inability to see the artificial sun, even worse, darker and more isolated than the regular areas in Yodaka. Jiggy delivered a letter to a Sara Johnson, a young lady who took the letter he delivered with tears in her eyes, so happy, that smile so wide.

"Thanks, Mr. Letter Bee, you see, this is from my brother. He wanted to be a doctor, and after he studied, he went around from town to town helping everyone…" she explained slowly, her smile wavering slowly. "I told him it was reckless with all the Gaichuu wandering about. He just said he wanted to help people. It's nice hearing he's still safe. I don't know what I'd do without Letter Bees like you to help me find out what's up with my brother and I don't know what I'd do without letters. I feel such joy every time I get one. Thank you."

That last sentence really hit him when he answered, "No problem. Hope your brother's doing well."

She said she didn't know what she'd do without Letter Bees or letters because she felt joy when she got them. Idly, he thought about Elsa Marchen who said she'd never before received a letter, so she couldn't know.

Perhaps in a rare show of warmth he decided to write one and get Harry to deliver in. Maybe she'd know then that letters brought joy, or even sadness depending on the heart of its sender. He wondered what Elsa saw when she read his letter. He hadn't been thinking anything in particular when he brought pen to paper and wrote whatever came to mind, a jumble of words, not artistic in the least.

But Jiggy felt that she did get something from his letter, when he rested at the next town he delivered letters at. Harry found him outside the inn, letter tied to his foot. Jiggy undid the letter and unraveled the roll of paper, looking from word to word, finding it almost exactly like how she spoke. Just as formal, just as constructed, though honest with all its lies.

Jiggy noticed many things about people from the way they portrayed themselves. Like, Lag was sensitive, if a bit weak because of his naivety, but he always would push himself to help people. A child version of Gauche Suede, he often thought of him as.

Just like that, he learned many things about Elsa when he read her words, both obvious things, and more subtle things.

She thanked him, because she wrote a letter for the first time, strung words together of her own accord, and in that, he realized experiences and knowledge were highly important to her.

She let him know that she did in fact have Mrs. Gobani's bread for dinner.

She proved yet again that she really was a bookworm, with all the theories she read about surrounding Gaichuu and myth, old folklore too.

She cared for his well-being, though to her, only because he was amusing, and that itself proved again that she was untactful, but refreshingly honest.

She truly was from Yodaka if she wanted to touch the artificial sun, and unlike most people, she spoke honestly about how terribly Amberground functioned with the poor on the outskirts and the rich near the sun.

She really did like to joke, and didn't have a bit of shame even though it seemed like she was flirting with him.

"So, you enjoyed the bread, Harry?" Jiggy asked his dingo, while sitting on the bed of his inn room. He saw from the twitch of his dingo's wings, that he did. "A poor person can afford other meals but bread…" he trailed off. Really, why bread – despite all the analyzing he'd done of her letter, the most curious had been the response she gave him when he asked.

"_Not everyone can afford a good dinner, Jiggy Pepper, even in Yuusari. I'm from Yodaka. It's a given that I grew up poor – don't let my clothes fool you."_

She was a weird woman, he decided, dealing with bread when economical, cheap options for food existed, and healthier options than bread.

* * *

Elsa washed the empty beer mugs at the sink – rinse, soap, scrub, rinse again – and repeat for the next mugs and plates to wash. She hummed a familiar tune to herself, a tune she once heard Aria play on her lovely violin. She worked at the bar for a second job to make enough for rent each month. Not being the richest person at all in Amberground, much more on the poor end, two jobs were needed to make ends meet.

Even if she didn't like working at the Yuusari Local Pub. Generally, she minded her own business, but as a server, it came to her responsibility to talk to people sometimes. Usually people who came to this pub were depressed, ordered a pint of beer, then asked for more hard liquor on top of that, moaning and groaning about their problems.

She could deal with it. After all, everyone got sad sometimes, and what way to go than alcohol? She could relate, well, if she bothered to spend money on alcohol at all. She didn't exactly have the funds for it.

But the worst part of this bar was the gossip. Drunk people talked – a fact of life – and revealed their innermost feelings about everything. Usually, the gossip didn't harm anyone, and usually consisted of insults to the girl at the office everyone liked to hate, or how so-and-so cheated on their significant other, why John Doe didn't pay child-support, or why Jane Doe was fired by her boss. Harmless gossip. But she found the most common topic people liked to talk about was the Bee Hive – perhaps not the Bees in question, but she learned from this place that people did dislike the Bees, despite the way they risked their lives for everyone.

And that caused men and women alike to speak spitefully about them, as if just anyone could do their job.

"Those Letter Bees've got nuthin' special 'bout them!" a man hiccupped, clearly drunk. Elsa heard him speak, and looked at his group. They consisted of him, a pot-bellied, balding man, though clearly having quite a bit of money judging by his wrinkle-free suit – a young man and woman, a couple, the woman in a scanty red dress and the man with too much product in his hair, and last, another man who clearly didn't want to be there, but nodded at what the balding man said. An odd, distasteful group of people. "Anyone can do what they do! They're mail-men an' they get such paychecks?"

"You're right, aren't you, Father? I hear they have no minimum age either! Their youngest Bee is twelve years old! If a twelve year old can do that, so can any remotely capable adult!" the woman said, with a small, mocking smile. "Then even _I_ can apply to become a Letter Bee."

"Preposterous, charging so much money for a simple delivery of a letter!" the woman's rich significant other said, with a frown.

"They've got nothing going for them," the last agreed, nodding his head as if he got it all figured out. "I can deliver letters too. No one even needs them really. Heard they're not even good at their jobs. That one guy broke under the pressure once he reached Akatsuki – what an idiot!"

Now, Elsa knew perhaps it wasn't wise, but when they insulted the Bee Hive, they insulted her since she worked there, even if not as a Bee. Quickly getting the dishes they ordered from the kitchen area, she made her way to them and placed down the pasta, the sandwich, the salad and the soup to the fat man, the woman, her significant other, and the bored man respectively.

Looking around, she noticed that other customers did send them displeased glances from the way they talked. Elsa smirked, knowing she could use them as support if she got fired for this.

"I heard you all badmouthing the Bees, correct? I know almost everyone can do their job, correct, they're only _simple postmen _after all," Elsa mockingly agreed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Right, right, isn't that so? They need to be paid much less, and allow more people to become Letter Bees. Their job is so simple after all," the bored man drawled. "Sure there's a couple monster Gaichuu or whatever, but it's probably easy to avoid them."

His three companions nodded with fervour. Elsa rolled her eyes and said, "What makes you believe their job is easy? Could it be…?" she looked at the bored man with eyes filled with the most sugary, falsest awe she could muster. "You know how to kill Gaichuu?"

"What's special 'bout a Gaichuu? Shoot a couple of those Heart Bullet things in 'em and they're toast. I hear 'bout how they go _kaboom_ as soon as one of those Bees shoots 'em," the fat man drawled and explained using his vast "knowledge".

Elsa put a hand on her hip and smiled slyly. "Don't you know how a Heart Bullet works, mister? Perhaps I shall give you a small lesson here since it appears I do have much more intelligence than an _ignorant fool_ like you, insulting those people who deliver letters!"

Yes, she could thank Jiggy for the verbal lashing she found herself able to give this man. Without him, she'd never know what receiving a letter felt like, and so she'd have no right to talk to anyone about the importance of letter deliveries or Letter Bees. Elsa would be just like she was back then, only knowing theory, not understanding feelings at all. Even now, she didn't understand the complexity of it – only knew that she needed to _know_, and knowing became the feeling which pushed her forward, curiosity, all of that. She dedicated this rant to Express Bee Jiggy Pepper who taught her a new tidbit of information in such a lovely way.

***** "In order to shoot a Heart Bullet, you need spirit amber – a rare gem that formed quite a long time ago when the ancient spirit insects crystallized inside tree resin – you know, like regular amber? However, spirit insects are quite powerful creatures and allow people to channel the powers of their heart in order to destroy Gaichuu – some scholars state they fight with us, as they connect to our hearts. They protect us, even seemingly dead inside these crystallized forms. Each spirit amber does something different. Primarily however," she looked at the bald man, starting to sweat now because of her informational lecture, as did his three companions, "what you need to shoot a heart bullet is a strong heart, and a connection to the spirit amber. You, I think, do not have a strong heart. It's not as if every imbecile who comes along is capable of shooting a heart bullet. Do you know what that means?" The four of them shook their heads and she smirked.

"No," one squeaked, looking at the fearsome woman in awe.

"The Gaichuu would eat your heart. So you see, Letter Bees are needed," she mocked. "Many of the people in Amberground need to send letters to their loved ones who live far away in smaller towns, especially in Yodaka. This phenomenon of smaller towns being contructed rather than big cities for areas further away from the artificial sun is explained by the Gaichuu's love of heart, but also darkness. Naturally, the artificial sun is quite bright, which is why there are no Gaichuu spots near Akatsuki. But a large city in Yodaka would instantly be eaten by Gaichuu who sense such things as it is dark and filled with heart. Small towns and people needing to send letter far away and a Letter Bee's paycheck can be explained using simple economics!"

Elsa's voice steadily rose as she continued to lecture. She noticed now that she'd gotten quite a large audience listening to her, some in shock and disbelief, most though cheering her on for not allowing the four idiots to speak.

"The Letter Bees, however kind, do operate a business. More Letters means more Letter Bees are required, but who would do that without the correct compensation for risking their lives and using their heart? After all, most operate by the Collective Action Problem – a type of thinking wherein people want their letters delivered, but no one wants to deliver them thinking that someone else will do it. As such, for raising the incentive to become a Letter Bee, salary is raised so that more are willing to do it, and even then, I consider it cheap for what they do and I am no wealthy capital citizen. Supply and demand, ignorant fool – more letters means more Letter Bees, and therefore a higher pay to convince them to do it. After all, there is no other way to send your words to other people you love, which means Letter Bees must do it. I hear the first Letter Bee was a person who wanted to send his own letter, and his idea was then adopted by the Amberground Government to create a fully functional postal service." She noticed that she indeed lectured with all the passion she had on the subject, even mentioning irrelevant details. But that couldn't be helped once she got started. Elsa looked at all of them pointedly. "So, would you rather deliver your own letters?" She gestured to the nice clothing they wore. "I would think you of all people wouldn't need to complain about a Letter Bee's paycheck." *****

"B-but twelve year olds are doin' it!" the fat man protested, ignoring the rest of what she'd been saying. "An' one of 'em is only interested in Gaichuu! And another only 'bout the money!"

Elsa clucked her tongue when the "audience" around them 'oohed' and 'ahhed' when she finished her speech, and in wonder as to how she'd respond to that. Elsa was quite familiar with the Bees, and knew him to be talking about Lag Seeing, Zazie Winters, and Moc Sullivan.

"Go Lady, show 'em who's boss!" a man whooped excitedly. Best entertainment he'd had in a while, obviously.

"You don't know what you're talking about! What idiot makes a twelve year old fight, and people who don't even care about the letters!" the rich lady screeched, trying to drown out the overly excited random man.

"Lag Seeing, age twelve," Elsa began, completely ignoring the lady and instead choosing walk around a little to gather her words, "finished the Letter Bee exam with the second fastest time recorded at the Bee Hive, only surpassed by one Gauche Suede – instead of waiting for the Gaichuu Glen Keith to retreat like many Letter Bees, he killed it instantly with his Shindanjuu by finding a weak spot in its armor. He and his dingo, Niche make a fantastic team, and he does have quite a high chance at becoming Head Bee one day, with his flawless record. Lag Seeing also cares more about the letters than any other Bee, too softhearted if you ask me. Always becoming teary eyed at letters too, of the stories of Amberground citizens."

She wanted to prove to these four that the Letter Bees they insulted were far more capable than they knew.

"Zazie Winters perhaps does not have an exceptional rate of delivering letters when compared to other Bees," Elsa began, thinking back to the Jiggy Pepper fan, "however, his rate of destroying Gaichuu is one of the best in the Bee Hive. While delivering his letters, he's saved entire towns from Gaichuu attacks. His letter delivery rate is still around 80%, quite good mind you, even if they appear a little dirty once they get to your hands."

"Additionally, Moc Sullivan takes a more professional approach to the Letter Bee job. While he only joined for money, and doesn't care about personal problems, who are you to judge?" Elsa looked at them with a glare. "Moc Sullivan cares more about the condition of letters for his pay. He hardly loses any, and will do anything to protect those letters. His delivery rate is around 92% - not too shabby, hmm?" She smirked when she thought of how they barely could form words anymore, shocked beyond belief. "So, done with your idiotic nonsense now?"

Before she could become more smug about her verbal lashing, she heard her bosses voice. "**Elsa Marchen!**"

She knew she'd made him angry. Timidly, she made her way to the back room to get a verbal lashing of her own. Thankfully, she did have the support of the people who ate now, a few cheering her on as she prepared herself for some punishment. Strangely, though she knew she would have regretted it normally, she knew she had to defend the Bees.

"Perhaps it's because I know at least a little, the importance of letters," Elsa whispered to herself. "I wonder what he thought of my letter…"


	3. The Importance of Choice

**Ink on Paper**

_Written by Whimsical Symphony_

_Long time no see, guys. University life has been busy and while I'd much rather spend my time writing fanfiction over essays, it's not feasible. However, I have written ahead in this story by a few chapters to work out a few kinks in relation to Elsa's character and how I want to map this story out. I'm glad that it's been well received so far and that you all don't find Elsa to be an annoying OC, especially because the story focuses a lot on her and her life rather than the life of the larger Letter Bee world. I tried my best to make her funny, imperfect, though not completely devoid of her strengths – she knows she's smart. After all, trying to make a non-Mary Sue OC isn't all about making them have so few strengths that you wonder why they even exist._

_Likewise, writing Jiggy is difficult and I've tried to make him more similar to his character in the manga where I found it diverged a bit. He's more ambiguous now with what he says, speaks in riddles a bit. _

_I hope that this chapter is well received, and again I'm so happy that you all enjoy it thus far. There's a gift for you in the form of Zazie who is amazing. Happy reading!_

* * *

**Chapter III - The Importance of Choice **

Elsa Marchen didn't expect to see what she did a few weeks after the incident where she sent back a reply to Jiggy Pepper's letter.

She walked home late at night, after buying a few meals from a store, of rice and fish, a change from bread, though she couldn't do without that and so bought the bread too. The cool air brushed against her skin, and she shivered a little.

Amberground was always a cool place, at least for Yuusari and Yodaka, due to their distance from the artificial sun despite the Geothermal heating. She walked quickly through the streets of Central until she passed a dark alley.

Dark alleys weren't uncommon, but she didn't expect to find Zazie Winters in one, fawning over a few stray cats that happened to make their home there. Elsa could've sworn she saw the young man melt inwardly from how adorable he found the sight.

She talked to Zazie a couple times before, since he came around the Bee Hive so often, and checked in with her sometimes about his deliveries. As such, she knew him, and he knew her, slightly at least. And from what she observed, Zazie never looked like the type to favour adorable kittens, but apparently her view of him had been all wrong.

Thunderland mentioned it a few times, that he had a slight _cat fetish_ but she never particularly paid attention.

"Ah, so Zazie Winters isn't such a tough guy after all, is he? Truly surprising indeed," Elsa called mockingly. "I never imagined I'd see him cooing over adorable stray cats."

Zazie jumped up startled, and clearly looked a little embarrassed when he faced her. "So what if I like cats? I wasn't hiding it, pretty much everyone knows."

"There's nothing wrong," Elsa replied. When she looked at Zazie, he really did remind her of a ruffled cat. "What is the shame in showing such care towards cats? They're probably quite grateful towards you." And just as she said that, one of them meowed and Zazie flushed uncomfortably. "And it's good you don't hide it."

"I guess…" he mumbled, stuffing his hands into his pockets. Elsa imagined he wanted to pet the cat badly, but resisted. "What do you want?" He glared at her, looking again like a tough guy, before his stomach growled loudly and he looked flustered yet again.

Elsa held up the two bags she held and started, "Zazie Winters, would you like to have dinner with me?" She couldn't resist teasing him like she did to Jiggy so much. She wanted to see how Zazie would react to her, so she continued, looking deep into his eyes like a young woman in _love_, exclaiming, "Truly, I've wanted to have dinner with you for the longest time but I couldn't find the courage. I think I've been infatuated with you for a long time, always watching you from afar and wondering how it would feel to feel your lips against mine. Unrequited love is a painful ordeal, but this care you show towards these kittens has given me the courage!" She blushed for good measure, and put her hand on the uncomfortable Zazie's shoulder, as if to stop him from running away. "I love you, Zazie Winters. You're so incredibly handsome and strong."

"Stop it, old hag! You're too old for me, aren't you embarrassed?" Zazie exclaimed, thoroughly annoyed and flustered, scowling deeply. He smelled the scent of fish and Mrs. Gobani's bread though, and his stomach growled again. He admitted, "I think I'll have dinner with you though."

"How cruel, ignoring my love confession for you like that. Age is a difficult thing to come to terms with." Elsa looked at the ground with a frown, looking about to cry. "And calling me an old hag? That is not what you'd call good manners."

"I don't care about good manners. You were being annoying," Zazie told her grumpily, still as red as a beetroot. He began to walk off and Elsa looked after him, confused before he turned back around and called, "Lead me to your place. You wanted to eat dinner, didn't you?"

He called her an old hag, and annoying. Quite a brat. Even if she admitted she was much too old for him and probably frightened him a little with her display.

Jiggy, she remembered, just simply told her to cut the crap, and told her how he considered it unwanted if she did in fact harbour secret affections for him.

Elsa wondered when he'd next come to town. He never wrote a reply to her letter, not that it offended her or any such nonsense, or broke her heart and allowed it to bleed out all her nonexistent feelings of love for him.

She just became a tiny bit disappointed, since she wanted to pester him with more questions about letters and Letter Bees and about his adventures too. Jiggy didn't seem to mind when she went off her rocker about the Amberground Scriptures, or about theories from philosophers and old texts from historians. He shared his own thoughts with her, rather than just humouring her, albeit in his usual cryptic way. It'd been a while since anyone did that for her.

"You're a brat, Zazie Winters," Elsa exclaimed tersely, but then smirked a little. "But, leading you to my place? Are we starting off our relationship in such a slovenly fashion?"

"Shut up…" Zazie blushed more if possible, and refused to look at her anymore, while they walked in silence to Elsa's home. The only sound in the night was the sound of Elsa's laughter.

She couldn't resist teasing him, especially since he reacted in such a way – her reputation be damned, she found it far too amusing.

* * *

Zazie made himself quite at home, eating fish, the rice, and munching on the bread she'd bought quickly. Elsa had wanted to be surprised, but really she supposed all teenage boys were gluttons, especially boys like Zazie who had yet to go through their growth spurts. She did expect a fourteen year old to be a little taller.

Elsa herself wasn't especially tall, but certainly taller than Zazie which drew a small chuckle out of her. She sat across from him on the table, idly eating her own bread.

Elsa wondered as well why people didn't seem averse to her invitations to dinner: Zazie, and Jiggy both. Certainly, she pulled Jiggy along, but no complaints came out of him. Zazie accepted her invitation all too readily, especially since she barely knew him and had been quite cruel with her teasing.

"I wonder, why did you choose to come to dinner with me?" Elsa asked with a frown, trying to decode him, analyze him like she would an ancient document, or perhaps when she tried to understand a document on the history of Amberground.

"You invited me, and there was free food," Zazie told her bluntly. "I'm not rich. And I know you're not shady 'cause I've seen you around the Bee Hive. So why the hell would I turn down free food?"

"Even after I was less than proper with my comments towards you?" Elsa continued, not at all feeling embarrassed. "I did tease you about my apparent _affections _to you and didn't stop. An _old hag_ like me would make you uncomfortable, wouldn't it?"

"You were just trying to make me uncomfortable... I hope," Zazie continued, bread in his mouth. Indeed, a lack of etiquette, since he talked with his mouth full. Regardless, it seemed endearing, in a way.

Even if he didn't apologize for calling her an old lady.

His reaction mimicked Jiggy's in a way, and she wondered what made her so unappealing to men that she didn't even have the right to like anybody, not to say she liked little boys like Zazie anyway, since that would be entirely inappropriate and the thought frankly made her want to vomit. But she apparently couldn't even like men Jiggy's age, and her affections remained entirely unappreciated. A sad thought, indeed.

"That is terrible for you to say, what if I did like you?" Elsa teased, taking another bite of bread herself. "Am I so unappealing as a lady?"

Zazie frowned, and blushed and stumbled over his words when he said, "I wouldn't come if you were being like that…" he scowled at her, and continued, "I thought I told you old hags aren't my type."

Zazie Winters continued to stuff his face, completely enamoured with the food in front of him. Elsa sighed then, and wondered why she invited the boy to dinner, especially since he seemed fine with calling her a hag, showing no guilt for it. Perhaps she was getting lonely these days to the point that even spending meals with strangers did just fine.

That day she ate with Jiggy had been the first time in a long time she ate with anybody, and he answered the questions she'd been dying to know, even went to far as to write her a letter out of the kindness of his heart, a kindness that seemed contradictory to his aloof, unapproachable appearance. Elsa wondered if she would have done the same, had she been in his position, though she supposed she wouldn't have been anyway, since she would have made a terrible Bee. She knew she'd be dead in a matter of minutes if she attempted the same jobs Jiggy Pepper did.

They risked their lives for letters. She wondered why people became Bees. Looking at Zazie sitting across from her, she opened her mouth to ask, "Zazie, why did you become a Bee?" and hoped she hadn't turned out to ask another offensive question.

Zazie stopped eating for a moment and swallowed almost painfully. "Why does it matter?"

"Is curiosity a sin?" Elsa continued, tapping her fingers on the wooden surface of the table.

"Most people don't ask. Bees are Bees, and they've got their own reasons. Not everyone's as open about why as Lag is," Zazie said aloud, remembering how out of line he'd been when he first met Lag Seeing, trivializing why he'd chosen to become a Bee. To him, Gauche Suede didn't seem important. "I didn't become a Letter Bee to deliver letters. Pretty much everyone at the Bee Hive knows that already."

"You want to destroy Gaichuu." Elsa gave him a look. "Correct?"

"Gaichuu killed my parents. So I wanna kill every one of them," Zazie responded easily. "Most people don't like that. I've started to watch out for my letters more though…"

"That's admirable, in itself," she told him with a small smile. "Why has your opinion about letters changed?"

"Lag convinced me that letters are important. They have heart, so I should always think they're important." He scratched his neck a little nervously.

She wanted to tell him that his devotion to friendship, seemed perhaps the most admirable thing of all, but didn't get the chance. Somehow, she wished she understood the purpose of "heart" and what it entailed, like the Bees seemed to know so well.

Elsa heard a small tap at her window then. Blinking once, she rose from her seat and unlocked the latch, opening the window wide and letting Harry, Jiggy's dingo, fly in and settle on her desk. Zazie looked over curiously and when he did, his eyes widened considerably and he dropped his fork due to his slackened grip.

"T-That's Jiggy's dingo!" Zazie exclaimed. He looked to Elsa and continued, "You know him?"

"We're vaguely acquainted, myself and that curious Express Bee," Elsa told him with a sly smile. She moved to give Harry some bread, and then slowly untie the letter from his leg. "I should tell Jiggy to not do this. It must be difficult to destroy Gaichuu without one's dingo."

"Jiggy Pepper writes to you?" Zazie exclaimed, even more shocked. "What kind of stuff does he write? Jiggy is so mysterious and cool!" He paused for a moment before continuing to ramble. "And he always says meaningful stuff, and I don't really understand but you've got to just agree because it's Jiggy Pepper right? He'd make talking about boring junk like eating breakfast sound awesome."

"It's only happened once, we're not well acquainted. He took pity on little old me," Elsa told him jokingly. Absentmindedly, she scratched below Harry's chin, and the bird crowed. Opening the letter then, she began to read Jiggy's response. "Well let us see what he's written. For such an unsociable man, he's slightly more eloquent on paper."

Zazie sat upright, completely losing his appetite, as he waited intently for Jiggy's words. Elsa imagined that he wanted to know more about Jiggy, and he understood that letters in a way, often revealed things about a person that they wouldn't otherwise reveal. The written word had so many implications, so many feelings as well as a direct meaning, even to one so stoic as Jiggy Pepper.

_Elsa Marchen,_

_I'm glad you learned something. All letters have heart in them, some kind of feeling. They can even be self-centred or full of hate, or of joy, or happiness, or even an 'I miss you' along with any number of feelings. Letter Bees carry that heart so our own feelings matter. It's a passion on our part, but we have to be careful not to fall prey to the feelings in a letter. Heart is strength, but it can quickly become weakness._

_I'm wondering what feeling you got from reading my letter. No one gets heart more clearly than a reader._

_History and theory are who you are, so there's no need to stay away from it. It's unnatural. Be who you are because who are you otherwise? _

_The Gaichuu are like spirit insects. A lot of people probably think about that, but it's something that no one wants to acknowledge; we're already far from the sun so why invite more darkness? But then, what should we even think about in Amberground? Our world isn't one with happy thoughts._

_Yuusari is the happy medium for everything. While Yodaka's too dark, Yuusari is at least a little bit closer to the sun. Aria always said that to aim for Head Bee is to get closest to the darkness and that's what Gauche Suede aimed for. Most people are content to stay in Yuusari. I can't say what I'd prefer, either way. Only that I know Akatsuki isn't what is seems to be._

_I hope you understand sometime. I'll be back around in Central soon since it's been awhile. Your diet's not all that great. I'll treat you to something when I get back. Do me a favour and take care of Harry until then, will you, since there's no point sending him out again._

_Don't worry about me. I've done this a million times before and your words sound like flirting to me. I'm not interested._

_See you and thanks,_

_Jiggy Pepper_

Gauche Suede seemed like an integral part of everyone's lives. Elsa wanted to know more about him too since his name happened to be mentioned everywhere.

"H-He invited you out to a meal?" Zazie exclaimed incredulously. "You're going to eat with Jiggy Pepper? You mean, you're going to talk to him too? And maybe you'll get a ride on his super cool 'Iron Horse' too. Dang, I'm jealous! I wonder what kinds of things Jiggy talks about during a meal and what kinds of things he likes to eat…" He paused for a moment before asking, alarmed, "You were flirting with him? What the hell?"

His Iron Horse, the famous motorcycle Jiggy Pepper rode somehow for hours on end, despite the fact that it consumed heart. Nothing proved his skill more as a Letter Bee than that motorcycle which allowed him to perform express deliveries in record time. A normal person would become somewhat exhausted with just a few hours of riding it, yet he rode it for far longer and still had a Shindanjuu to shoot at Gaichuu. Elsa wanted to ask him about how it worked, how he did it. Truly, someone's heart shouldn't have been able to support that.

"I'll ask him about that Iron Horse of his. It's a curious contraption," Elsa said aloud, only then noting how Zazie's eyes sparkled.

Elsa chuckled, reading over his words for the last time. She wondered how many people who lived in Ambergound would readily talk about their uncertainty about Akatsuki, the capital, and how no one seemed to know what lay behind its walls.

"I've eaten with him once before. He's good company, though a bit unsociable," Elsa told him slowly, her smile turning sly. "Shall I tell him it's you who wishes to flirt with him?"

"I don't!" Zazie flushed and scowled. "I just admire him."

And in that, Zazie thought, that maybe Gauche Suede was to Lag, on a deeper level, what Jiggy Pepper was to him. He started to understand that, after getting to know Lag better. He went crazy whenever anything dealt with Gauche.

"It's obvious, I think everyone in the Bee Hive knows you worship Jiggy. He might know himself," Elsa teased. "You do get tongue tied whenever he comes around, don't you think? Almost like a girl with a crush."

"Don't call me a girl!" Zazie protested vehemently, mouth still full of food. "Any normal person would think Jiggy's cool. It's common sense!"

Elsa joked with him, and laughed at him for the rest of dinner due to his hero worship of one Jiggy Pepper. Somehow though, she knew Zazie wasn't alone in his feelings, since his reputation spread far and wide in Yuusari as Mana said. Though unsociable, and seemingly without friends, many people admired him, the proverbial lone wolf. Elsa did wonder though, with someone who seemed slightly oblivious like him, who moved at his own pace, did he know?

* * *

Elsa worked front desk for the next two days, unfortunately for her. She marked down the completed deliveries made by Bees and passed new letters to them, constantly dealing with both her own boredom since she desperately wished to work in the library. While she held the interest for what the Bees did during their time on the road, grew interested questioned even she didn't have the patience to deal with many of them especially during work hours. For example, Moc Sullivan always found time to scowl, she noted. While she defended his work ethic at the bar the other day, she'd die before calling him a decent and amiable individual.

His scowl always made her day just a little bit darker.

"You'd think he has no people skills, right Harry?" Elsa grumbled to the dingo who obviously wanted out.

Harry came to work with her for the next two days while she awaited Jiggy Pepper's return. It caused a lot of questions, certainly, though not from Zazie who already knew the situation and seemed far too interested in catching a view of Jiggy once he strode through the doors of the Bee Hive, stealthily of course like some sort of secret agent, with how he pretended to be doing something important, or hiding behind pillars and such so the man wouldn't notice when he walked in. Moc Sullivan never questioned her, but he did clearly state his mind when picking up his letters that day.

"My respect for Jiggy Pepper's dropped a bit," he mentioned bluntly when she assigned his deliveries, taking a look at Harry who crowed defiantly.

Elsa smiled saccharinely and have him his letters. She clucked her tongue and went on to mention. "Well, well, that isn't an admirable way to view your s_enior _Letter Bee with a delivery speed you must look up to." Really, once she got started on her usual tirade, it became difficult to stop, especially in the case of irritating Moc Sullivan who never could catch a hint that no one wanted to hear his venomous words, regardless of how little he opened that pie hole of his. "Everyone looks up to Jiggy Pepper in some way, Sullivan. It wouldn't be taken well to mock a man who can shoot a Shindanjuu _and_ ride a motorbike that _also_ runs on heart, and a man who can destroy Gaichuu with such ease. And he is quite humble, wouldn't you say, and professional, rarely even coming to Yuusari in order to deliver letters. Is that not the dedication you pride yourself in?"

Moc glared at her, but refused to answer her entire rant. Even she found it a bit too wordy, but the reason remained that he couldn't take the truth.

Despite the fact that his words meant entirely different in the way he framed the context, to badmouth Jiggy Pepper even accidentally seemed like a misstep. And as a scholar who knew all about missteps and errors in historical documents, she found it fit to inform him of his own fallacies.

"Jiggy Pepper cares way more for his friends than his letters. It's a disappointing attitude to have," Moc elaborated with a small frown. "Leaving his dingo here while he's out on deliveries?"

"Yet, despite that he has served the Hive well. Do motives matter so much when observing the large picture?" Elsa defended, irate yet managing to keep a cool head. Besides the pencil she felt about to snap in her hands. "Additionally, one perspective is never correct. Or perhaps they are both correct. I cannot deny your skill as a Letter Bee nor your professionalism. However, people entrust their words to Bees, in this desolate world of Gaichuu and cold isolation. Words are important and full of feelings, so do the feelings of the one carrying the letter, the burden of the Letter Bee, mean nothing?"

"Your view is too similar to Lag Seeing's. All that matters is that the letter gets to the hand of the recipient. That's our job, no more, no less," he explained, not at all swayed by her words. "Getting involved, having your own feelings, is unnecessary. What would you know about a Bee's burden anyway?" he muttered, taking the stack of letters and heading off without even a goodbye.

Perhaps, her last statement had been out of line. Carrying a heavy mailbag, trekking across Amberground with nothing but a Dingo for company, she didn't know any of that. But Jiggy's letter mentioned that a Letter Bees heart was important. What did that mean then? He also mentioned weakness, falling prey to heart.

The more she thought about his words, the more confused she became, especially when comparing his words to Moc Sullivan who found heart inconsequential. She wondered how that could be, considering the very importance of the presence of heart in Amberground.

Elsa did not understand the most integral element to the history of Amberground, then. It hurt, thinking about it that way. She placed her head on the desk, feeling the cool wood against her cheek before sighing.

"Thanks for taking care of Harry." She blinked and looked up immediately into the eyes of Jiggy, much to her shock. Harry already flew off towards him and perched on his arm. From the corner of her vision, she saw Zazie looking at him in awe, whispering loudly about it to his friend, Connor. Jiggy continued, "I completed my deliveries."

"R-Right," she stuttered uncharacteristically before sitting herself down and marking the completions for his deliveries. Her hands trembled and she still felt that fury from dealing with Moc for too long a time. The boy truly was unbearable, treating his elders that way. "We'll assign your next deliveries before you go out next time, Jiggy How long is your stay in Yuusari Central this time?"

"A week, maybe a little bit less. My heart needs to recover," he explained. She hummed in reply. A smell wafted from Harry's feathers. Sinner's bread. "You really haven't had anything but bread. Harry smells like it."

"For your information, I did have rice and fish a couple days ago, though with some bread. Mrs. Gobani's bread cannot be compared to." Elsa smiled and continued, "Well, you're all set. It's best you rest at home. You look rather exhausted." And she did notice, even if Jiggy wasn't in the habit of showing his weakness. His skin looked paler than usual and his gaze remained slightly unfocused, and if she concentrated, she could see the beginning of bags forming under his admittedly pretty eyes. "If you continue overexerting yourself, you'll ruin your handsome face," she teased.

Jiggy didn't dignify her with an answer to that, knowing by now that she liked to tease. "I'll do that." He glanced at her writing something down on a sheet of paper before mentioning, with a miniscule smile on his face, "I didn't need the defense, but thanks."

Elsa grew flustered, realizing he heard at least a portion of the conversation she had with Moc Sullivan, and coughed. "Everyone should acknowledge your skills as a Bee. It's unquestioned, even by a theoretical perspective as I've never seen you in action." She thought back to his letter then, and mentioned, "And your letter taught me a little bit…"

"My reason for becoming a Bee means I follow my own path. I don't care what people think," he responded nonchalantly. "I told you I'd treat you. I'll meet you here tomorrow."

"But you're the cool and aloof type, my dear Express Bee. Invitations to dinner don't particularly seem your style." Elsa smirked. He did have a strong dedication to his career and remained both rebellious and enigmatic, while composed, traits Zazie admired him for. Hearing his words made her wonder, what made him choose? Zazie had his own reason, Jiggy had his, and for that, it seemed a more sentimental job than Moc, an anomaly, made it seem. "Or is it?"

"Really?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Invitations are another form of a letter. Words face to face are the same as words written on paper. If we've done that, then I don't see anything unlike me to invite you anywhere." He looked her over once with that sharp gaze of his. Elsa noted that again, he was being cryptic. "You're looking thin too."

"Thank you for pointing out a woman's flaws again." Elsa chuckled, noting that he indeed did seem like the caring type. Perhaps someone like him truly didn't realize that he made people like Zazie melt with his apparent enigmatic nature that cropped up to others as acting _cool_. He just seemed like a bit of an oddball, an eccentric, really. "But that's fine. I do have a few questions for you. Zazie Winters reminded me that you ride that _super cool _Iron Horse of yours. I'd like to know more about it."

She couldn't help but quote Zazie on that just for fun. His hero worship of this man made her laugh.

Jiggy shrugged and replied coolly, "It's nothing special. I'd give you a ride on it, but I can't since I've been on the road longer than usual."

"No, no I just want to know how it works out of curiosity," Elsa responded. Really, she did like the conversations they shared, even over letter. Most people thought of her as an immediate nut just for talking so much about strange things no one seemed to care about. "I know you're not fond of talking, but thank you for humouring me. Where shall I meet you tomorrow?"

"No big deal," Jiggy replied, absently scratching Harry under the neck so the bird crowed. "You'll be working in the library, right?" She nodded in affirmative. "I'll meet you there."

"But where will we be going for dinner?" she questioned curiously.

He thought about that for a moment, wondering where to go or why he even decided to go in the first place. Maybe he wanted to know why she always chose to eat bread. Or maybe that meeting at Prayer Hill and the letters brought some kind of routine to his hectic life. He didn't know. But he wanted to know.

After all, if he let things run their course, he'd eventually get where he needed to be.

It was strange to talk, since he never really talked much, maybe because not that many people willingly talked to him. Jiggy admitted that his social skills were a little lacking. Maybe he wanted something different in Yuusari.

"Doesn't matter to me, we can decide later," he told her. She'd been about to open her mouth when he cut her off, "Until tomorrow, Elsa Marchen," he gave her a salute and a lazy smile before leaving. Elsa wondered what happened.

"Jeez, I'm so jealous. Spending time with Jiggy and listening to his advice too!" Zazie gushed to Connor who seemed to be used to it. "Did you see how cool that was? 'Until then, Elsa' with that smile of his. Man, he's definitely the coolest!" He sighed then. "I wish I could take his iron horse for a spin…"

"It's impossible for you, Zazie," Connor exclaimed simply, biting into an apple. "It takes a lot of heart!"

"S-Shut up!" Zazie responded, frowning.

Some things never changed. Though the more that Zazie wanted to ride Jiggy's motorcycle, the more she wanted to know how he managed to keep it up for so long. Any normal Bee, if they attempted it, would have long lost their heart. But Jiggy kept going without faltering once.

* * *

Jiggy met her, as promised, after her shift ended late, in the library. Elsa finished shelving the books quickly, already feeling her stomach growling. It reminded her of the days back in Yodaka when she ate hardly anything and those weren't pleasant thoughts.

No one enjoyed thinking about poverty ridden Yodaka, so they simply ignored it, she supposed. Everyone acknowledged it to some degree, even discriminated against those from there. But never truly mentioned how difficult life managed to become there, that even surviving became a battle of fighting tooth and nail for even the simplest of resources.

The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to know why Akatsuki prospered while everyone else got by on the barest minimum. And why people didn't seem to complain openly about it.

"Perhaps we should head to Yuusari Local Pub. It's not too far out of the way," Elsa suggested, meeting him at the door to the library. "I work there some days, and drunk people aren't all too appealing when working. But I assume it'll be different going as a customer."

"Roger." They walked down the hallway and exited outside. The cool air made her shiver briefly. "It's a place where people want to get away from life. Life in Amberground isn't pleasant but they have to make do with what they have. There's no other option."

Elsa looked at the artificial sun in the distance. "It's because of that. And the unwavering belief in the Empress."

"Not only that." Jiggy shook her head in disagreement with what she said. "Coffee without sugar and milk is always dark and bitter."

Whatever Jiggy said, he meant wholeheartedly. Elsa knew that he only knew how to get his thoughts across in a different manner, perhaps based on experience and analogies. Even on Prayer Hill when she talked about her confusion with letters he simply replied, 'You'll know when you get one' and left it that. She hadn't a clue to his intentions to send her one ever. When they talked about Gaichuu, he defended his views as concisely as possible, making her feel like the fool for her insensitivity. But he remained mysterious in a number of ways in how he spoke.

She wondered if though, he'd never become good at public speaking, he'd write famous novels or books of philosophy. Despite the fact that he said he didn't have the best words, she only found the difference in his words, and a difference did not constitute it as bad.

She rescinded her thought that he was bad with words. Simply awkward.

"Life would be dark and dreary without her?" Elsa guessed, looking at his expression to see where she went wrong.

He nodded in reply. "She's our base for everything. Because we never lived without her things would be darker than they already are and people need something to believe in. We're not ready to have our foundation taken away."

"You know Jiggy, you are making me more and more interested," she teased. She placed her hands in her pockets, trying to fight out the cold. "Your words make me feel like I'm reading a good book."

Jiggy opened the door to the Yuusari Local Pub, and she followed in behind him. The atmosphere at the pub seemed the same as always, though Elsa felt a little odd not taking orders as she usually did. The bar as usual homed a few rowdy customers with too much beer in their systems, as well as family and friends who just wanted to talk for a while and romantic couples gushing to each other, cooing in a way that made her want to vomit, saying 'Honey' this and 'Baby' that.

She grabbed a seat with Jiggy at a small circular table and picked up a menu, deciding what to order then. Her hands warmed up considerably inside the bar. She wondered if the reason that people went here included the fact that they didn't need to look upon the artificial sun and for once the world didn't seem lonely, when looking at other drunk people gossiping about trivial matters.

"Oh, you're here as a customer this time, Elsa?"

She looked up and saw the bartender, an older man with a scruffy beard who often stood up for her when the boss found it fit to scold.

"Just for today," she told him with a smile. "I wanted to see what it was like, coming here as a customer instead of serving people as an employee. Work has been difficult these days and I needed a bit of a break. Jiggy here was kind enough to treat me."

"Forgot you worked at the Hive." The bartender looked to Jiggy Pepper who looked through the options available to him on the menu. He scratched his chin and continued, "Nice to see you, Mr. Jiggy Pepper. Your reputation spreads far and wide." He gave the both of them glasses, and poured water for them both. "I'm not sure Elsa's told you, right?" Elsa sighed, knowing what he wanted to say and Jiggy looked at him curiously. "Wasn't 'bout you specifically, but Elsa's got such a huge respect for Letter Bees. Gave these guys who came in a lecture for talking bad about them. Talked all about the importance of letters. Kind of touching." He chuckled a bit before asking, "So, what can I get you two."

"I'll have a shrimp panini," Elsa muttered, embarrassed. She averted her eyes from Jiggy's. "And a glass of red wine, please."

"Shepherd's pie with French onion soup. Thanks," Jiggy said coolly as usual.

"Great, then I'll be right back before you kids get hungry." With that, the bartender walked off to give the order to the chef and left Elsa behind to drown in her mortification.

Truly, she didn't know why she was embarrassed, only knew that she did what had been right at the time that those ignoramus' came into the bar. But to have a Letter Bee find out about it made her seem much more altruistic than she knew she truly acted much of the time.

"You learned a lot about letters," Jiggy commented lightly, noticing how embarrassed she seemed. "It helped answer your questions. Your defense of us came twice."

"Well, I wouldn't say it answered all my questions, only that I learned letters are important because you need some way to communicate with those you're not close to geographically or else it is impossible to live in such an isolating world." The bartender returned a short while later with her wine, which she sipped slowly. "I don't know what heart is, truly. I know that Letter Bees use heart bullets, but I'm uncertain as to the true nature of 'heart'. I know Letter Bees carry an important burden though and their jobs shouldn't be mocked."

Even by _Moc, _she thought with a laugh.

"Heart is your essence – your emotions, everything that's you. Everything has heart. Bees carry the heart of someone to give to another as a message," Jiggy explained. He remembered the letters he wrote to her and thought about how it could have been mistaken for nothing. "Even my letters had heart in them. I wanted you to experience what it felt like getting a letter. That's definitely the heart that you saw and I meant."

"Then you sacrifice all of that when fighting Gaichuu and simply performing your duty. Isn't it a frightening thought to know that you could die in the same way that a victim of a Gaichuu dies, except that it's self-inflicted?" Her grip tightened around the glass of wine. His explanation did clarify for her what heart was, and she suspected his answer. She knew what having no heart did to a person. "What makes Letter Bees sacrifice themselves, I wanted to know. Zazie Winters told me that each Letter Bee has their own unique reason for wanting to do what they do and not all are easily open about it. However, you'll have to forgive my impudence when I ask you, why did you become a Bee, Jiggy?"

"Your reason for choosing to become a Bee overshadows your fear. Because we're not wearing blindfolds, we're not scared. We're aware of it," Jiggy elaborated slowly. It proved true for him, at least. He didn't know about other Bees, but knowledge of the fact that he could lose his heart because of his job and shooting a Shindanjuu made him fear it less, probably because he did it himself. "I became a Letter Bee to become strong," he answered simply. It didn't seem like he'd elaborate more than that, but then he said, "It was for my siblings. Then and now."

"Was?" she cocked her head in confusion. "Did you mean to put that in past tense?"

"It still is," Jiggy said solemnly. He knew she didn't mean to ask, he could tell just by the way she bit her lip and suddenly adopted a sort of nervousness she never had before, not with her usual composure. "Don't worry about it. If I didn't want to answer, I wouldn't." He could only say that to her to tell her that he knew she meant no harm by it, even if he recognized that the peaceful atmosphere they had disappeared entirely as the conversation began. Elsa became more aware of how her questions hurt others, even if she jumped the gun most of the time. "I don't care."

Elsa scolded herself for setting another unintentional landmine for an unsuspecting individual, with her untactful words. She knew what that meant, as so many in Yodaka did. One of his siblings died. He still had someone to live for, but one of them died.

They saw enough death in Yodaka, from illness, from Gaichuu, from starvation, Elsa herself remembered it all, just how many people she saw die. To think that one of Jiggy's siblings died like all those people she saw die in Yodaka hurt her a little. Sometimes, she wondered how people like him kept going, but then she realized as soon as he mentioned that he had another sibling, that he had no choice but to become strong. He kept looking forward because he needed to believe. Coffee without sugar and milk was dark and bitter, always.


	4. Reminiscing About Hometown Blues

**Ink on Paper**

_Written by Whimsical Symphony_

_Hello all. Again, it's been a while but university has gotten in the way! But, I've written chapters in advance it's just they didn't sound right and I had to revise, revise, revise. Hopefully this seems as if it's come out better. But it may not have, and I may just be imagining it. I'm really liking how Elsa has turned out as an OC for me. It's always amazing to see a character you designed come to life. She really didn't start off with many details at all, but as soon as I started writing she kind of started doing her own thing. Let me know what you think – if you like it, hate it, whatever. _

_I remember a while ago, there was a chapter where Jiggy popped in right after the Cabernet finally died. And he didn't have his hat, so my reaction was, "Jiggy, your hair is really, really messy." I'm really hoping for the manga to update again sometime! The pacing of the story is so great, and storytelling itself and the art both make this work a masterpiece in my opinion. It's really underrated._

* * *

**Chapter IV - Reminiscing About Hometown Blues **

The night went on at the bar, with idle chatter between the two of them. The bartender returned with their orders, noticing the tense atmosphere, shuffling away quickly so he could get away. She asked for another refill of wine, reminding herself that she'd pay. Elsa herself wanted to run, but the more she drank her glass of red wine and her second, and third to relax, and fourth, the more she felt like talking. Or perhaps, bawling and begging Jiggy to forgive her for her insensitive comments. She didn't want to offend him, or perhaps she wouldn't care quite so much if she offended him for a less painful fact like family.

Elsa knew she was a colossal idiot, but not as much before as now.

"My apologies, Jiggy. I didn't mean to question a sore subject for many of us who used to live in Yodaka and even those in Yuusari. Yodaka's a place that is more a home for death than anything and I detest the fact I brought it up," Elsa said softly, after downing her liquid courage like a middle aged man. Her cheeks felt warm, flushed, and the truth rushed out so uncontrollably. "I'm a downright bitch, aren't I?"

"No," Jiggy replied bluntly, taking a bite into his shepherd's pie. "I chose to answer. Don't take responsibility for things you have no control over." He looked at her flushed cheeks, and how sorry she seemed, and added, "Curiosity isn't bad."

"It _is_ when I trample over other people's feelings. And yet, much of the time I don't realize it." She couldn't count the number of people she pissed off. "There've been a lot of them." She had another sip of wine. "I crossed a real line today so take my sorry, please," she slurred slightly.

Narrowing his eyes, he asserted, "You should stop drinking," and she was taken aback at his seriousness for a moment, before he gave her his small enigmatic smile and added, "or you'll get drunk. You already sound like you're from Yodaka."

"I guess you're right. I just felt bad and sorry's come out better with a tiny bit of wine," Elsa replied. It embarrassed her to think she sounded normal, as if she hadn't painfully constructed her speech bit by bit. Alcohol was definitely a no-go for her, she thought, a little flushed. "If I'm going to be honest, I feel a bit drunk already."

"Eat, and don't bite your tongue," Jiggy advised, "and drink lots of water to clear your head." He pushed her plate towards her. Jiggy wondered how far she'd go just to apologize. It must've been bad, her ability to think that people were offended all the time. He could recognize an innocent question, no matter how far into his personal business she decided to delve unintentionally. Answering what he wanted, that was what he stood by. If he refused to answer her, she'd stop her line of questioning, he knew that. Did other people? "I don't have thin-skin, I told you. Ask what you want. If I don't want to answer, I won't."

"Thank you, Jiggy. It means a lot that you don't mind. And that you decided to treat me to a meal. Amberground's a lonely place," Elsa said easily, not at all recognizing how casual her speech became, no embellishments at all. She took a bite of her shrimp panini. It'd been so long since she had anything other than bread or cheap food. "You're from Yodaka like me, so you understand that just as well as me."

"Company's what Amberground's lacking. It was more about that than the meal," Jiggy explained to her, looking at how her eyes widened. "We wrote letters. But we don't need to when we're both in Yuusari."

"You're… caring. It's new to see that." She bit her lip. Thinking about that made her remember, not that many people in Amberground legitimately cared. Not about loneliness, or anything like that. Satisfaction came even when they wallowed alone, not thinking about sharing it with other people. "I'll pay for the wine. It's unfair for you to."

"Don't worry about it." A career as an Express Bee gave him far too much Rin to know what to do with anyway, besides taking care of Nelli. And when he thought about that, he missed his sister more.

The sound of the people in the bar grew louder, despite the silence between them. Neither of them really had to explain aloud, what Elsa meant. Jiggy thought, despite her drunkenness, she made a lot of sense. He wondered if he got lonely too.

* * *

"Thank you for escorting me back," Elsa told him. They walked on the streets then and the cool air again made Elsa shiver. The wine brought her a little bit of warmth, and the clash between it and the cold was terrible. She fully expected to stumble home, because by the way her thoughts didn't align quite right. She knew of her own tipsiness. He said he'd walk her back, without one word of complaint. "It's nice of you."

"I can't trust you to walk back in this state," he replied simply. He should have suspected when they walked down to the poorer side of town; she didn't earn much money, needed two jobs, she said it all before.

"And thanks for picking up the tab for me. I didn't want drinks, but it sort of happened." She clasped her hands awkwardly as they continued to walk. He gave her an acknowledging nod, which she deciphered to mean 'don't worry about it.' Curious, she asked, "Jiggy, whereabouts do you live?"

Jiggy turned around and pointed at some vague region of Yuusari Central behind her. "Around there. The opposite side, right off Nocturne Row."

Elsa blinked and looked at where he pointed with the buildings she always admired when she first came to Yuusari, until she realized that she admired them because of their beauty. White stone, marble, majestic pillars and arches, they all cost a lot of money especially in wealthy Crown Sonata Street where he pointed to.

"I forgot you Express Bees got massive paychecks," she sighed, willing herself to look away from the sight. "Do you know the history of the architecture there?"

"Can't say I do." He looked at her because he knew she did, and she wanted to speak as she usually did about everything she knew.

It didn't irritate him, because it did interest him, hearing what other people thought. He remembered the conversation he shared with Lag Seeing near the light house a while ago, and even though he scolded him, he learned something too.

Lag seemed exactly like Gauche did, except more of a crybaby, always wanting to help people.

"It comes from the name of the street, Crown," Elsa started, stopping walking for a minute, just to look at the buildings and collect her thoughts. In its own way, that street looked unapproachable, even if not in the same way as the capital she wanted a glimpse of so badly did. "It used to be the poorest part of the town, but if you look at it now, it's definitely not, right? They named it 'Crown Sonata' because of its position closest to Prayer Hill, and therefore, the artificial sun. It's blessed by the Empress, is closest to the sun, and therefore the crown of Yuusari. At first, it was to mock them, point out the irony in the fact that so many poor people lived so close to Prayer Hill."

Thinking about that made her wonder, would she know more if she got closer to the artificial sun? If she couldn't be blessed, how could she live in Akatsuki eventually, uncover all the secrets surrounding Amberground and finally _know_? Just being near the light hadn't been her goal at all.

"Eventually a lot of people from there started to learned how to innovate and take part in the booming business in Nocturne Row, started forming companies, building businesses from scratch. They wanted to prove they could actually be the crown of the town, that it wasn't a mistake. It's old money mostly, which is why people like the President of the cotton mill industry live there – Joey, I think his name is – live there," she continued, interested in vocalizing everything she studied. "When people got richer because of business, they wanted to actually make it into the crown of Yuusari Central. Many of the people who lived there were artists by trade, creative minds, who all worked together to make its buildings look different, majestic. They were supposed to look like relics, something ancient, almost like temples. They were supposed to be buildings the Empress could take notice in. Hence, the colour white, which symbolizes purity and the reason they faced all the buildings in white stone, and why they chose to use pillars and arches to make it look grand. And now, it's said to be blessed by the Empress, especially because they're not poverty-ridden anymore, but the richest in Central."

Glancing at Jiggy, she teased, continuing to walk then to her poor man's apartment, "You didn't know any of that when you bought it, right? I didn't figure you for the religious type."

He shook his head, lips quirked upward, amused. "No, I just needed a house that fit."

"Well if it didn't, I'd call you picky, since you live in the wealthiest region of town, Sir Jiggy Pepper." When she laughed, she didn't hold back at all. "Or should I call you Young Master? But… why the big house?"

"Don't call me that." Jiggy thought about that a moment, before he answered, "I tried to make it into a home different from Kyrie." Maybe not even for him, but if Nelli visited, he didn't want her haunted by images of Nello. He knew she hated Kyrie, Yodaka, all of it. Probably, she'd feel just as uncomfortable here but at least she wouldn't have to remember. With something different, Nello's death would feel more like a dream, he thought. And he wanted it to feel like a home, but nothing really felt like a home without those two. "I barely use it so it's not necessary."

They reached the front of her house before they knew it – her old, shoddy low-rise apartment with cracks in its exterior, much cruder, rougher, and more decrepit compared to any home on Jiggy's street.

After walking to the front door with peeling paint, she turned to Jiggy and asked him, "Do you know why I eat Sinner's bread all the time?" He shook his head and she said softly, "Forgetting's painful too. Where I lived, a tiny, tiny town called Cambriel Minute, we'd eat bread all the time, all of us children. It was cheap and easy to come by. When I left, I ate it to remind me of my life there. You have your expensive house for more reason than just to forget, don't you?" Elsa chuckled, when he didn't answer. "I know it's for your siblings. If you became a Bee for them, then everything's for them. I hope one day, you'll see… her or him…" she bit her tongue, hard and blithered on like an idiot, "I shouldn't have brought it up."

"I want to see Nelli again too," Jiggy agreed. "Words are words, but a letter's fleeting." Observing the flush on her cheeks, he deduced she was a lot less sober than she knew, especially talking so freely about her past. "You should go in and rest. Thanks for the company."

"Then I should say thanks for the meal, Jiggy Pepper." Elsa smiled. "You taught me to let go of Yodaka a little bit at least. It's the first meal I've had without munching on a plain piece of bread, instead going for a more fanciful meal in a shrimp panini." Her limbs felt warm and tingly from the alcohol, and without thinking about it, she wrapped her arms around his waist and leant her head on his chest. The subtle scent of something entirely Jiggy reached her nose – a sort of freshness, like pine, and mint, probably cologne. She could feel his muscles slightly through his clothes, much to her embarrassment, and his breathing now that she was close to him. And before she could laugh about how uncomfortable this all was and the apparent rejection, he surprised her and placed one arm around her shoulder. "What?"

"Do I look that unapproachable?" he asked curiously. "What's wrong? I'm returning it."

"Yes, you should be praising me for my bravery. It's no less frightening than facing a Gaichuu!" she joked a little flustered from the transfer of heat from his hand to her body, and how stupidly she acted.

He probably thought of her as a moron, or creepy, or an innumerable other number of thoughts which didn't seem at all pleasing. To embrace Jiggy Pepper seemed like the oddest thing someone could do. She cursed alcohol to the depths of Hell. But worst of all, she enjoyed it, it seemed comforting, undeniably warm.

"You smell nice." Elsa bit her tongue, flushed a deep shade of red and continued, "I mean… well it was a compliment, wasn't it."

"Yeah," he agreed. Elsa could feel his laughter, even if she couldn't hear it, by how his breathing pattern changed and how his chest rumbled for a short moment. "Your hair smells nice too. Like the flowers my brother, Nello, liked."

"Y-You're talking about him?" she stuttered, surprised. Nelli was his sister who he wanted to see, Nello must have been his sibling who passed away. Her face burned too; Jiggy said everything like it was nothing at all, almost as if he himself had a couple glasses of wine. "Nello is…"

"Without him, I wouldn't be a Bee." He felt nostalgic now, thinking about him. And he wondered how long it'd been since he held anyone else. He never was one for physical affection, but he wasn't against it. Something like that, affectionate and warm seemed difficult to be against. "Forgetting's more painful and memories are heart. Without that, we're not who we are."

Elsa didn't like how uncomfortable she got while hearing his voice, feeling it rather than deducing his feelings, from the timbre of his voice and the warmth of his hold on her. She started to back away and his hand lingered on her shoulder a bit before letting go completely.

Although she hated her impulsivity, she couldn't deny that she almost missed it.

"Nello and Nelli have an incredible brother, you know," Elsa complimented shamelessly. "So much that I might even be falling for him!" By brushing it off like that, she could keep her composure and go to bed because she felt exhausted. She enjoyed that far too much. Perhaps she was a closet pervert, noticing his cologne and his _body_. Opening the door then, she looked back at Jiggy again, "Thank you today for your company, for the meal, for paying for my wine, and for talking about painful subjects I didn't mean to pry into. It was enjoyable. I'll see you again, hopefully not too far in the future."

Shaking her head and opening the door to go inside, she wondered whether to actually Empress forbid, miss him until he next came around. That'd be strange. It caused her to wonder if their conversations meant anything to him, because she considered him a good acquaintance or friend, if she wanted to be daring. No one assumed their status as celebrity-of-the-Hive-Jiggy-Pepper's friend so carelessly.

"Elsa?" Elsa looked at him and saw him give her a small, almost sly smile. "Your bravery deserves my thanks. It was nice," he commented before walking down the street towards his own flat.

Jiggy Pepper actually enjoyed her hug? She felt like laughing from the sheer absurdity of it. Yet, his comment made her glad that she hadn't been the only one. It seemed like they got a little closer. While she didn't want to remember her stupidity the next day, she didn't particularly regret it. She hoped he actually found a friend in her too.

* * *

Elsa rested her head on the table in the library, wanting to just fall asleep. Her night hadn't been good, her sleep quality poor, with a constant case of dry mouth she couldn't get rid of. Her head hurt, and she didn't have the energy for dealing with people, even though she smiled like usual and tried her best to help them in this strange, groggy haze where she didn't know quite what was happening.

"Do you have any publications on the Kapelmeister? It's for a school project."

She looked up, pasting her customary smile on her face. A boy addressed her, one with neat clothes and hair, and a pair of smart glasses, though he looked decidedly uninterested in anything to do with the Kapelmeister. School, she hadn't heard that term in a long time. Education cost money she never had, living in poverty and all. The thought made her a tad envious.

"Works by Jack Selano and Arietta Fritz can be found in that corner over there. Both are experts in the field of Zoology and adore studying the Kapelmeister and its relationship with the spirit insects of ancient times. Their books hold a great deal of mythology within them as well," Elsa explained enthusiastically. While not particularly history, she did enjoy hearing about extinct creatures like the Kapelmeister which lived among the spirit insects. She got up and walked to the section of the library which contained all of the works on animal biology, both on living and exinct creatures. The boy followed hesitantly. "Here, you'll find some others. Our Dr. Thunderland has also made some publications on the subject since it turns out that the Kapelmeister is in fact _not _extinct!"

"B-But our paper's supposed to be on extinct creatures! And the Kapelmeister looks super weird!" he exclaimed, already backing away from her. Scared of learning, what a shame.

"No, no, you see, one of our Letter Bees, Lag Seeing happened to find a Kapelmeister and it travels with him and his dingo today, finding the weaknesses of Gaichuu. Dr. Thunderland was rather excited by the prospect of a creature that had seemingly been dead for so long, to just suddenly appear one day!" Kapelmeisters, she did think looked strange – a rat-like appearance with a huge mouth and a strange looking hair growth pattern that resembled a rich man's moustache. Even so, she couldn't deny their contribution to history. "Imagine, the Kapelmeister did not fall into ruin and somehow kept its heart all these years. Truly magnificent. And the symbiotic relationship between them and Gaichuu is incredible, and for the Kapelmeister to not meet a similar fate within spirit amber is curious because surely-"

"Ugh, you're talking too much, woman. I came here for my damned book, not for you to lecture me on stupid Kapelmeisters!" he said crassly, not at all caring about his rudeness.

"Well, fine. I hope you find your books then," Elsa replied, a false smile on her lips. She all but stormed off, fuming. For all the contributions the Kapelmeister provided, and all kids could do was to call it stupid without knowing its background? Somehow, that made her a bit sad.

"Who the hell cares about the stupid history of Kapelmeisters? I just want to get this crap done," she heard him mutter. "Ugly-ass Kapelmeisters."

Rude mouth, the brat had, insulting Kapelmeisters which did absolutely nothing. That one who travelled with Lag, the Kapelmeister prince, Steak, she thought his name was. Poor Steak, hated because of his looks. And from what she heard, he was far from useless even if he was cowardly.

She sat down at the desk she moved from and watched as he scurried around the shelf, looking for the works she pointed out with not much enthusiasm. She could tell he only wanted to leave. "History only means the world to me, does it?"

It probably did only mean the world to someone like her, so incredibly obsessed she could rant about the most random topic for hours. Most people reacted like that boy, not caring much one way or another and telling her to shut her mouth when she became too obsessive. Jiggy had been one of the few to humour her.

"I wonder… if I could write publications on my own…" Elsa murmured. The thought crossed her mind more than once before. Rather than to simply serve as an access point to knowledge where it made it hard to work when no one cared, she could cultivate it, truly indulge in the works of others. That thought cheered her up, when she looked at the book laying on her desk – one of mythology and hopes and dreams, and of the history of Blue Notes Blues. The Maka always did interest her. "I talked about Dr. Thunderland earlier..." she shook her head. "It'd be foolish to try to ask someone I barely know."

She waited until her shift ended before deciding to ask Mana for advice on what she did for her research. She always wanted to know how to proceed on. She'd been in Yuusari for a while now, it'd been high time she did something for herself. And who stopped her from writing except for snotty kids who cared little for Kapelmeisters?

* * *

Elsa opened the door to the Relaxation Lounge swiftly, almost barging in. She hadn't thought to look to see if anyone happened to be well, relaxing. She wanted to ask about Mana's story how she started with her research. And come to think of it, she never actually heard how Gauche ended up saving her job, only that he did, and he risked his health for it.

They never got around to discussing it. Somehow, she wanted to know the details of it since it seemed like a pivotal point in Mana's career. Gauche Suede seemed that way for many people, and one of the many questions that bothered her was Letter Bees, their nature, their history and what the significance of a letter was. Other than the fairly harmless topic of a Kapelmeister, much of the general public did not know about the risks Letter Bees took either, how they functioned. Those people at the bar represented a small portion of those in ignorance.

That child in the library made her think about what she was doing, sharing her knowledge to those in the library who didn't appreciate it. An unknown part-timer would never get invited to live amongst those in Akatsuki. She needed to make a name for herself in Yuusari.

"Mana, I'm here to ask you a few questions!" she called enthusiastically, only to see that Mana wasn't in the room at all. She stepped in and looked around, murmuring, "Well that was anticlimactic."

"She went to talk to Thunderland." Elsa looked to the couch, only to see Jiggy Pepper resting there, his Bee Hat on the table in front of him, exposing his messy hat hair to all. He gave her a nod of acknowledgement.

"You scared me, Jiggy!" Elsa commented, with a small laugh. When she approached him and gestured to his hair, she couldn't keep a straight face. "Jiggy, your hair's a complete and utter mess. Is this what you hide?"

Jiggy ran a hand through his hair, noting it did stick out quite a bit. "It's messy," he acknowledged nonchalantly. "I don't really care." He took a glance at her, and noted the bags underneath her eyes. "You look tired."

Elsa made herself at home beside him on the couch, with adequate distance of course. She did wonder if people realized what a ditz Jiggy Pepper appeared to be, and if they saw his hair as messy as it appeared often. It made him look a little bit younger, less mature than he usually seemed, like a regular teenager. From what Elsa heard said about him, people in the Hive, men and women alike, other Bees who wished to be like him, drooled over him. Only after she talked to Jiggy, did she realize all the gossip and gushing that inevitably followed with the mention of his name. She understood it, but didn't_ truly_ understand it.

"I am, dear Express Bee. I do have to thank you for paying for the wine again though, and hopelessly embarrassing myself in front of you," Elsa babbled, remembering her shameful behaviour in letting him take the tab. "I didn't intend for it to happen. I just got a tad flustered."

"I'll remember that you getting flustered leads to alcoholic tendencies," Jiggy (almost) joked. But he wanted to reassure her. "The talk was enjoyable. Stars are bright only because of their companions, so favours are fine and I don't mind."

"Your words really are strangely beautiful." Elsa wondered if he thought up his statements ahead of time to sound poetic. "Thank you."

It contented her that he didn't mind the fact that she splurged on wine, and decided to embrace him at the end of the night while tactlessly bringing up his dead brother. Most people would find her impossible to be around at that point. She had to pay him back sometime, somehow.

She inhaled, taking in the scent Mana prepared before her departure, lulling her into a sort of calmness she never got anywhere but here.

"Mana Jones will be back soon," Jiggy told her. "You can ask her what you need to then."

Elsa hummed in response to that, finding that indeed, she was in no hurry. Wating to talk though, to rid the room of the uncomfortable silence, she asked, "Jiggy, how old are you?" out of curiosity, because of the fact that she deduced he was younger when she first saw him.

Jiggy opened his mouth to answer her clearly odd question. "Nineteen."

So, he was quite young, Jiggy Pepper, the man who, with his enigmatic nature and skills as a Bee, seemed to be the talk of the Hive all the time. It made her laugh, thinking that he was younger than her with all his "sagely advice" and poetry.

"Oh, so I'm an entire two years older than you. Isn't that shocking?" She laughed. It amazed her someone even two years older than him couldn't even come up with the complex, abstract ideas that he did. The poets and writers of the world would be jealous of Jiggy Pepper, even if his social skills were lacking. "It wouldn't do you good to fall for an older woman."

"I'm not planning on it," Jiggy responded bluntly to her teasing statement. "And yeah, it's shocking."

"Do you have to be so cruel?" Elsa muttered. "Implying that I, a scholar, am immature? I can see you're a child, Jiggy, and I noticed it upon our first meeting!" He raised an eyebrow, as if mentioning, 'it's only two years,' Suddenly, it occurred to her. Jiggy had been a Bee for a while, and perhaps he'd met Gauche Suede during his time working. She wanted to know more about him, since his name popped up everywhere for even seemingly the most unrelated subjects. So she asked, "Did you know Gauche Suede, my dear Express Bee?" She caught his silent question, a 'why?' and continued, clutching the fabric of her pencil skirt a little, "His name pops up for a fair few people, for assisting them. He was integral to Mana's career too. I suppose I wish to know what the Head Bee was like, what causes Lag Seeing to become so inspired as well."

He pondered over her question for a moment, thinking of that man who influenced so many in the Hive. "I respect him," he stated firmly. He caught her look at him, somewhat surprised, and he wondered if he seemed the type to never give someone praise. Only a fool wouldn't give Gauche Suede praise for all his work. "Suede followed his own path. He cared for the hearts of others. For that, I respect him."

"What was he like?" Elsa questioned. To hear Jiggy speak a lot surprised her, and to garner his praise, Gauche Suede couldn't have been the average Bee. He must have been special in many ways. "Did you talk to him?"

"A few times," he responded. He may have regretted that, not speaking to him much. Few people seemed like he did, with an inconceivably kind heart. Remembering that, also reminded him that he befriended Dr. Thunderland and looked past his eccentricities where not many did. "Suede collapsed often from using too much heart for the sake of others." He remembered, he asked him once why he aimed for Head Bee. "He said he aimed for Head Bee to deliver heart. But also to fix his sister's legs." He didn't have to say it, that Gauche Suede was similar to himself in his purpose. "When I saw him collapsed, I gave him rides back occasionally on the way back to Yuusari."

"He seems far more selfless than many these days." She bit her lip. Though Bees, she wanted to add, were selfless in itself. Suede risked even more than a regular Bee, a surprising fact, almost sad. But he did it for his sister, almost like Jiggy did. They were two peas in a pod. "What did you talk about?"

"We didn't talk much. When I told him to stop overworking himself, he brushed it off and called me kind." Thinking about it both annoyed him, and also contented him. But his warning didn't mean anything, with what happened to him. "I don't think he ran away."

"He's still alive?" Elsa hadn't paid attention to the rumours surrounding the subject much. But she did see Lag Seeing often talking to Zazie and Connor about finding Gauche. "What makes you think that?"

"Suede was too determined to run. He spent everything in his bank account." Jiggy looked calm, despite the subject at hand. "He lost his heart. He's out there somewhere, his shell. Seeing tries hard for him."

"I see… that's a sad fate. And Lag has perhaps been a little down." Elsa remembered how Letter Bees used shards of their own heart for everyone else. Looking at Jiggy now, his assertive gaze, his composed, strong nature, she doubted anything like that could happen to him. But if it could happen to the top Bee of the Hive, then it could happen to anyone, even if only a deduction of Jiggy's. She knew his observations were nothing to take lightly. She sighed. "Jiggy," she started, and he looked at her, "Gauche Suede was correct. You're kind. So take your own advice and save enough heart for yourself, because that fate can befall anyone, even you, a skillful and magnificent Bee. Keep your savings in your bank account, correct?"

A small smile in reply. "Roger."

"Your house is truly an economical option, a prime example of saving," Elsa muttered dryly, bitter of her own poorness. "But please, do save."

"I don't plan on losing my heart. Heart and Rin aren't the same. Heart's always in decline." He looked deep in thought when she gazed at him. "I can't afford to forget."

"No you cannot, my dear Express Bee. You won't be the handsome Jiggy Pepper I've fallen for if you forget." Elsa chuckled when he sighed. "Come now, would you want to leave me broken-hearted?"

"Cut the crap," he responded coolly.

"But I really love you Jiggy, you're so cruel!" Elsa wailed loudly, just to make fun of him more than anything else. "You reject all the women this way? So harshly and unfeelingly?" Jiggy raised an eyebrow, as if to ask her, 'what women?' "I thought we had a spark when we kissed each other!"

"Elsa… I didn't know you felt that way for Jiggy… and he was so harsh when rejecting people…"

Elsa looked up and saw Mana, who just entered, hearing their entire conversation and clearly misunderstanding the entire conversation after hearing her 'confession'. Jiggy's rejection now made him sound like a man who had women flocking around him and thus had his pick and didn't care about any one of them, a rotten apple a mother would warn her daughter against, a devilishly attractive man who switched women like socks. An inaccurate description since she knew if she honestly confessed, he would let her down gently with some horribly abstract rendition of 'it's not you, it's me' or misunderstand her confession.

"Why do I find myself getting a headaches a lot more these days," Jiggy mumbled, and Elsa couldn't keep in a snort.

Elsa explained to Mana who laughed in reply. She did not hold any intimate feelings for Jiggy Pepper and what she heard was nothing more than a joke on her part to get a rise out of him. Regardless, when she looked at his face, heard his words, she cared enough to not want him to spend his savings. Romantic feelings though they may not have been, she cared about the fate of her acquaintance.

If Jiggy Pepper spent his savings, he'd be left in a far worse state than living off of bread every day. He'd forget Nello and Nelli, and no amount of Rin could bring those memories back.


	5. Secretly Treasuring Your Letters

**Ink on Paper**

_Written by Whimsical Symphony_

_I wrote this chapter quite a while ago and have tried in vain to fix it. Something about it seems off, but it might just be my imagination. I found it too fluffy at times, though this story in general does have a lot of fluff, though meaningful I hope. Also glad you guys still like Elsa and haven't hated on her yet. I don't know if an OC who is likeable to me will also be likeable to you. Thanks for the warm reception this has gotten thus far and happy reading. I love all comments, whether negative or positive! I'm always seeking to improve._

* * *

**Chapter V - Secretly Treasuring Your Letters **

Elsa immersed herself in reading for the next few days, only really stopping to go to the washroom, eat and sleep. Mana told her that Thunderland had been the one to truly get her interested in science, in publications, in applying her curiosity and not giving up. While she knew that, it still struck her as odd that such an eccentric man seemed to have a heart of gold. Mana and Jiggy both told her Gauche Suede had been close to Dr. Thunderland, another strange thought. Most people avoided Thunderland like he had the plague, and while she doubted that he was as evil as people made him out to be, she did hear that he tried to dissect Steak once.

A passion for science, perhaps? Thunderland did save quite a lot of lives with his thorough study of pathogens and how they affected the human body, so she could not deny how that alone took much dedication, how much he contributed to the scientific community. Elsa read much of his work to become familiar with an incredible person who actually did his work in her own workplace.

A thought crossed her mind that devotion like that to science, to the study of pathogens and disease specifically, indicated a desire to help people, a soft interior under a hardened exterior. That seemed much like Jiggy, if she wanted to compare. So, in that, Elsa felt horrible for judging.

But what really piqued her interest was Jiggy's view of what happened to Gauche Suede, how he lost his heart. Somehow, she thought she said something incredibly embarrassing back then when that conversation occurred, telling him to take care and all that, to save, and not lose his heart. To admit she cared to that extent seemed too forward on her part for someone she deigned a friend.

He was a new friend, someone she shouldn't have been so close with, and further, he was Jiggy Pepper, and that alone made her second guess herself. Jiggy had quite the reputation, and so truly, Elsa didn't know if she could call him a friend. Elsa decided not to think on it, and hope they were, for she thought they were, even if Jiggy never voiced his thoughts on that.

Jiggy went back on the road two days later to start a new set of deliveries. What he said about Gauche worried her and she wondered even now, what convinced Bees to let go of their hearts.

"Martyrs, the lot of them," Elsa commented, slamming down her book with surprising force. She had been reading the same sentence over and over. "Jiggy will be fine, he's a skilled Bee."

But so was Gauche Suede. She disliked her mind quite a bit, questioning her own attempts at reassuring herself. Surely this was the price that took place when someone was overly rational.

Three taps at the window snapped her out of her stupor. She saw Harry at the window yet again and she wondered why Jiggy wanted to write to her so soon after they saw one another. Opening the window, Elsa let Harry inside and gave him his usual bread.

"You are going to make me more poor, are you not?" Elsa teased, receiving an approving croon in response. When she untied the letter from his foot, she opened it and prepared to read what Jiggy wrote. "Indeed, I do wonder why he spends time writing."

_Elsa,_

_I know you're probably wondering why I'm writing. I am too._

Well, she thought with a small laugh, he did make her feel increasingly special with his cold, harsh words so painful they could have compared to receiving frost bite in the sub-zero temperatures in Blue Notes Blues.

_I thought you might be worrying even though there's no need. I'm saving and I've been high on heart. Thought you should know. Danger hasn't been too bad around these parts, not like they usually are. A few Gaichuu here and there aren't a problem. Remembering is important, so I can't afford to forget – memories construct a person._

Elsa felt a tiny bit happy thinking that he cared enough to let her know. Without her control, a warm feeling seeped into the fabric of her heart.

His words as usual, flowed with a strange beauty, awkward in a sense, broken like he wasn't used to writing letters as she knew he wasn't. But more than in person, Elsa could decode his words, he seemed more open, like a regular nineteen year-old, albeit a tad eccentric.

_You looked tired, more than me. Without rest, you can't function well. And you look stressed. Keep your stress in mind or you'll be the one paying out. Heart can become weakness, and too much drive is painful to the body. Suede was an example._

Jiggy was one tough customer when it came to concern, laying it on thickly like peanut butter on a sandwich. But Elsa, in her isolation, hadn't met many willing to show her concern, like most living in lonely Yodaka, and so the sentiment warmed her heart.

She withdrew from the public when she first arrived in Yuusari, due to insecurities at first, because of her heavy Yodakan accent. All until she constructed herself anew so she could pass as someone from Yuusari, or even Akatsuki, she avoided talking. Elsa listened to how other people spoke, mimicked them like a parrot.

And one more addition to becoming a resident of Yuusari involved success, so she could get to Akatsuki and touch the light, that strangely unnerving artificial sun, find all the secrets the world veiled from the world.

Her drive all relied on this, and Jiggy calmed her nerves so easily. As someone from Yodaka, he understood her.

_You said you wanted to hear about Suede. But in order to hear about that which is important to you, it's good to cut straight to the source, as anything else is an obstacle. An edited document has different value than an original. The closest we can get is Aria. Salt hurts in a wound but also cleans it. You want to see Akatsuki and learn more about Bees, learning about him might be a good idea. _

_For someone like Sylvette, the pain's too close. Even closer than for Aria since she's young. I wouldn't want to remind Nelli of me leaving either. Dr. Thunderland could also tell you about him. They were close._

Aria Link, the woman who loved Gauche with all her heart, to ask her seemed strangely personal. But if Jiggy's words proved correct than a talk might prove cathartic to Aria. But with a stranger? Why would someone like her let her ask, explore the most intimate memories for a closer analysis of Gauche Suede?

She seemed like a better option to talk to than Dr. Thunderland, who could scare her off quite easily. And she didn't want to remind Sylvette Suede of her pain. It would be beyond salt in a wound for Sylvette, he implied, beyond cruel.

_Keep calm and ask. Be brave, like you were to me. That bravery deserved thanks, so this one will too. _

_Remember to eat more than bread,_

_Jiggy_

"Harry, Jiggy is much kinder than people make him out to be, don't you think? This concern is nice," Elsa admitted to the bird, who pecked at the bread she gave him and stared at her after, responding to her voice. Harry's gaze was surprisingly sharp, like a knife. "Your eyes remind me of him, you know. It is unnerving how he seems to know everything."

The bird crowed as if to say, 'he does' and she couldn't exactly refute that point. Elsa pet the bird gently before flattening out her own sheet of paper and starting on her response to his helpful letter. He deserved the best words she had to offer.

* * *

Jiggy sat down on the bed, staying still while the elderly man in front of him, a doctor, adjusted the bandages around his head. A careless mistake on the road led to an injury that left his forehead bleeding and bruised. A sharp turn on his bike while avoiding the attack of a Gaichuu led to him smashing his head against the face of a cliff. Thankfully, the doctor said the wound was shallow and wouldn't need staples or stitches. It would be fine healing on its own with careful care.

It was more of a superficial injury than anything serious but it could have been, he said. Regardless, it was strange, since Jiggy didn't remember the last time he got injured, it was so long ago. The throbbing of his head now seemed new and wholly uncomfortable. He could only blame his carelessness.

When the doctor finished, he exclaimed, "Good that's over and done with. You should watch out for head injuries, they can be pretty serious." He felt his forehead then, and frowned a little. "You're also running a bit of a fever, didn't notice?"

In fact, he didn't notice, not really. He noticed he'd been travelling a little slower, and how his body seemed to be aching a bit, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Jiggy shook his head.

"Well it's a mild one. Should be better after a night resting. You'll be good to go tomorrow," he told him. Jiggy would have gone anyway, since he couldn't really afford to slow down express deliveries. Unlike a regular Letter Bee, he didn't have that flexibility. "Take care of yourself on the road though. Letter Bees have jobs that are bad for health."

Jiggy couldn't agree with that sentiment more, even if he enjoyed being a Bee and doing all that it entailed. The Gaichuu were one problem. Spending all the Rin in his bank was another. He did tell Elsa he'd watch out for that, but it became difficult sometimes with what he encountered on the road. Skill was only one factor in the job. Misfortune hounded Letter Bees often, since letters carried heart. And heart was both weakness and strength, sadness and contentment: also, priceless.

"Thanks. I'll watch out," Jiggy told him. Without his help, he knew he wouldn't be in good shape the next day. And he needed to be, in order to survive the Gaichuu hotspots riddled across the map.

"I'll get you something to eat. Fluids are good for you right now." The old man got up and scratched his bearded chin. "The inn matron should have some soup left over. I'll bring that up for you. Please relax." Without waiting for his response, the old man walked quickly towards the exit.

Jiggy meanwhile lay flat on his back on the bed, pondering over the letter which he sent Elsa not too long ago. She asked about Suede. He knew his answer was inadequate, since he didn't know the man well at all. From what he knew of her, Elsa was ambitious and studious, and most probably wished to learn Amberground's secrets one day. While most could die in peace not knowing, she would have a bottle full of regrets.

Inspiration came from learning. Motivation came from learning. Suede was beneficial to learn about, and the closest source to do that was Aria, without causing a great deal of harm like it would in his sister. Aria, he also knew better than Sylvette Suede, who he knew even less than he did her brother.

Jiggy's head throbbed a little and his body ached, when he focused on the pain more. Exhaustion washed over him, almost as if his energy had been drained from him entirely.

The doctor came back with Harry on his arm, surprisingly enough, letter tied to the bird's foot. Elsa sent him a reply. Jiggy sat up a little and the bird crowed, flying straight to him and settling on the headboard of the bed.

"Letter's for you. Girlfriend?" the old man teased, putting the bowl of soup on the nightstand.

"No, just a… friend," Jiggy settled with, untying the letter and unrolling it to read. He could guarantee some misplaced flirting in there just to tease, and hopefully get a response out of him he never expressed.

"Reminds me of how I used to call my wife just a friend, back when I didn't think that I actually thought of her as much more," the doctor laughed and said. Jiggy didn't reply, but listened. The elderly always talked to him and he enjoyed listening much of the time, even if this time, it was at his expense, suggesting a non-existent relationship with Elsa Marchen. If she could hear the suggestion, he knew she would play it up, finding amusement in the situation, causing misunderstandings purposefully, like she did with Mana Jones. "Well, never mind. Go on and read the letter."

Jiggy did so, absorbing the words she wished to send to him.

_Hello Jiggy,_

_It is good you're saving, my dear Express Bee. We wouldn't want you to go into debt. How heartbroken I would be if that was the case! Honestly, though, not a simple teasing of you, since I have grown to care a lot about your well-being, embarrassingly enough._

_Perhaps you've fallen for me and you care about me too? I've been taking better care of myself due to your kind words. Forgetting is painful, just like you've mentioned. However, I've been lessening the bread intake that I always used to remind me of home. Now, I can think of home without remembering the pain along with it to such a degree. I've had a more balanced diet thanks to you as well, Doctor Jiggy. Your concern warms my heart._

_I'll talk to Aria about that, and hopefully it won't hurt her too much. My untactful questions can hurt, just like they did you, once. I can't help being socially inept. I try, but I can't do anything more. But even I know not to hurt someone like Sylvette. The pain for her is too close. Thank you for the advice, it helped me out quite a bit._

_I promise not to follow in Suede's footsteps. You can see by my frugal nature and decrepit house I'm quite good at saving! It's you that I need to worry for._

_I'll be brave. If you were here, I would give you another hug, since I've fallen for you and all despite your terrible, terrible rejection._

_Be safe, my dear Express Bee,_

_Elsa Marchen_

Almost without thinking about it, he smiled, a miniscule smile, at her words. Maybe he knocked some sense into her about eating right with his letter, with the conversation at the pub too. Jiggy knew that of all people, someone from Yodaka could understand the loneliness of Amberground best: the distances between each city, and being constrained to living just behind the walls of one, the few people always in despair because of a recent Gaichuu attack; the poverty too, didn't inspire any sort of happiness.

For people in Yodaka, the next hot meal was the only happiness, finding shelter for the next while, surviving from day to day. Even things that normally made people happier, like childbirth, seemed less happy in Yodaka much of the time. Sometimes poverty ensured that a kid wouldn't live, not until any significant age at least.

Elsa lived in that situation in Yodaka, just like he did. Which meant that she was lonely, much more than she knew or said she was at least. Inside, she probably welcomed someone showing concern for her.

"Good news?" the old doctor interrupted his musings.

Looking at him for a moment, he said, "She's doing well. Learned to take care of herself."

"She didn't before?" The doctor seemed almost offended by the suggestion, almost acting as if he should see her himself to set her straight on a doctor's orders.

"Clinging to the past doesn't inspire good health. It's only when you focus on the present that you can." Jiggy wondered why the doctor looked confused at that, but he didn't say anymore and started on the soup to occupy himself.

Elsa decided to focus on the present, by questioning Aria and starting her research, even stopping eating the bread she used to connect her to the past so much. A good sign; hearing just about that, contented him when he fell asleep that night, trying to work off the fever that he got unknowingly.

* * *

Elsa found Aria a few days later, doing some paperwork casually, that Largo Lloyd had given her. The woman always managed to look sophisticated, though stories of her time as a Bee proved that when push came to shove, she actually was the clumsiest of Bees. That, to her, seemed hard to imagine, when Aria sat with such proper posture, with a smart pair of glasses sliding down the bridge of her nose slightly, her beautiful blonde hair pinned up. Looking at her now, Elsa assumed that Gauche Suede would have been insane to reject her affections, as any man would be honoured to be loved by Aria Link. Somehow, she knew that Aria never confessed to the man, and that lay among her large number of regrets in that which she didn't do while Gauche had been with her.

The time in the year was coming for the exams for the new Bees wanting to join the Hive. That caused an influx of paperwork for Aria who, with her position after retiring as a Bee, was in charge of all such administrative manners. Aria's responsibilities included marking the preliminary exams to weed out all the unsuccessful candidates, and informing those who were successful, to attend the actual Bee exam in the future.

She didn't look too busy, if only because of her nature of work. The preliminary exams stayed standardized year after year, and so weren't particularly difficult to mark when it came to it. But Elsa wondered if, perhaps, to ask her about Suede, whether she should have offered her services in assisting her to gain some leverage. So, she did, standing awkwardly at the doorway, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

"I was wondering if I could help you with paperwork, Miss Aria," Elsa began politely, attempting not to let any of her social inadequacies that often appeared with her conversations with Jiggy, show. "I believe I can be of assistance since I've completed all my work for today."

Yes, Aria didn't have to know she worked long and hard, cramping her hands with her own paperwork, so she could get a chance to talk to the woman about Suede. She still had a shift in the library later, but she completed most of her major work.

Aria looked alarmed, raising her gaze from the focus on the papers, and exclaimed, "You want to help?"

"Yes." Elsa approached her and stuck out her hand. "I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself. I'm an archivist who occasionally works front desk, Elsa Marchen."

"Elsa…" Aria shook her hand and bit her lip, unsurely for a moment, thinking before whatever she needed to remember, she did. Giving her a kind smile, she said, "There's no need for you to be so stealthy."

"What do you mean?" She hoped Aria hadn't found out. She hoped to bring up the questions tactfully because Elsa didn't want to hurt her.

"Jiggy told me what you wanted to ask already. It was a surprise, to hear him speaking for someone else." Aria put down the pen she used to mark with and gave her a small smile, and gestured for her to sit down at the opposite end of the table. "Normally, Jiggy's quiet and doesn't talk to many people."

Elsa sat opposite her and quickly began to sort through the unmarked tests, taking a stack and beginning to mark. At least as a part-time archivist, she had the authority to do it. Jiggy helped her again with his words, realized the importance of asking Aria and not relying entirely upon her bravery which could so easily falter or hurt the woman. He let Aria know in advance, yet again choosing to assist her.

"Jiggy is too kind, I think. Many people believe he's not because of his few words, when in reality he does go above and beyond for people that he perhaps shouldn't need to. He barely knows me, after all," Elsa shared, giving a small laugh. "He's an unpredictable Express Bee."

Aria nodded, seeming to agree. Placing her next complete marked test on the correct pile, she picked up another and began to mark. "He's a bit oblivious. He fulfils his job well. I think people in the Hive are a bit afraid of him since he never appears to show much emotion."

Hearing her speak, Elsa became aware that Aria was an analytical woman – she too, appeared a bit frosty if one didn't attempt to know her first, similar to Jiggy. Of course, she heard about the woman's success in administrative manners, always completing her job with an enviable sort of perfection with time management skills that anyone would want to have.

Somehow, Elsa wondered why she didn't talk to her before; was she too concerned about her career, or her other duties? She never attempted to make friends like a normal person would, especially as a resident of Yuusari Central, so much more lively than any town in Yodaka. She knew that they would get along at least a little.

Cracking her knuckles, she started to work again, a bit flustered while thinking about more personal thoughts like becoming friends. Surely, Aria had some special power, making others want to be friendly with her so easily. Aria seemed like the epitome of what an intelligent, sophisticated woman should act like, not scaring people away. Elsa herself frightened people with her blabbing on seemingly unimportant matters like the explanation behind the cold weather patterns in Blue Notes Blues.

"But he does, he's quite awkward at expressing himself, that's all, I believe. He's caring." Admitting it proved embarrassing, but she told nothing but the truth. "I don't believe he even realizes his reputation around the Hive."

"He probably doesn't. Jiggy has a one track mind despite his cryptic statements. He doesn't care what other people think of him, and most of all, he doesn't notice." Aria understood him well, it seemed, quite a feat in itself because Jiggy eluded basic understanding of the human psyche. More than once, he baffled her by simply standing in front of her, and occasionally, talking to him reminded her of reading an old historical, worn and torn, practically illegible document from before the Empress' reign. The woman stopped writing for a moment and admitted, "He's a less open version of Gauche in some ways."

Elsa hoped to ease her into the conversation, but she never expected the other woman to bring it up so easily. She paid apt attention. "How so?"

"He's willing to help people regardless of consequences. They'll both bend over backwards to help people, though Gauche was considerably more comforting," she said with a small smile. "You wanted to ask, didn't you? About Gauche."

"I just wanted to know what he was like as a person. You see, so many talk about Gauche in the Hive – he helped Mana and Thunderland and so many people, so I wanted to know…" She wondered if asking would make her seem presumptuous, too imposing. Elsa knew how her questions cut like knives sometimes and hurt people without her even knowing. Even Jiggy, she hurt once and still, she was regretful over it, since she only meant to learn more about him. "I apologize if it's painful. I don't mean to ask questions that are too personal, since we know each other so little too."

"It's alright. I'm still affected by his disappearance, but it hurts less to talk about it now." Elsa could see how Aria frowned slightly, how she lied just a little with that. Sadness marred her expression when she reminisced on old times. "Gauche and I were friends since childhood. Since I remember, he always wanted to be the Head Bee, even more when Sylvette was born on the Day of the Flicker. That day, he forgot his mother, named his sister after her. She couldn't use her legs, and Gauche vowed to make it to Akatsuki in order to help her regain use of them."

"Day of the Flicker… he lost his memories?" Elsa exclaimed, shocked. Of course, she remembered that dreadful day that made Yodaka seem even darker, they lost the sun forever for a split moment in time. But she never imagined what happened then. "He forgot?"

"He forgot all his memories of his mother who died giving birth to Sylvette," Aria said softly. Shaking her head, she continued, "But even then, he's always been the same kind person. When I tried to help him with anything, he'd brush me off, tell me I was kind, and that's all."

Elsa remembered Jiggy saying too, that when he showed concern, Gauche said the same to him. "He seems like a kind man."

"More than kind. Gauche would risk his own life for someone easily. It's hard to find that kind of selflessness these days. Once, I remember he nearly died trying to recover his letters, almost falling from a cliff. He dropped it while battling a Gaichuu." Her hands tightened around her pen and she didn't look at Elsa. "It wasn't any fluke that he completed the Letter Bee Exam with the top entry time; he was the most skilled with his spirit amber as well, and had good instincts. That, with the towns he visited, a lot of them asked when Gauche would come around again. He thought of delivering letters as his life's mission."

"People hold him in high regard," Elsa said. It seemed more of an insult now, thinking of those men in the bar so eager to insult Gauche Suede for 'cracking under the pressure'. Mustering up the courage, she asked, "So what happened before the events of his disappearance?"

Aria gave a pained smile. "He got what he always wanted. He was promoted, he was going to Akatsuki to help Sylvette." She fiddled with the cuffs of her blazer. "One day, we received a letter saying that he was terminated. No explanation, none of that. So then, people started to think that he gave up. Whoever said that didn't know Gauche."

That made her think that in Akatsuki, odd things were happening, suspicious activity. If Gauche was anything like Jiggy Pepper with regards to his resolve, then a man like that simply wouldn't give up one day; not a man with a goal driven by the love for his sister. He didn't do any of it for himself.

Akatsuki, the capital of Amberground contained the darkest shadows in the whole land, with secrets none were privy to. Was that why when she wanted to get closer to the Artificial Sun, at the same time she felt apprehensive of doing so?

"It was up to me to inform Sylvette when the news came in." Aria pushed the glasses up the bridge of her nose, and bit her lip. She continued writing like she hadn't said anything.

"That was selfless of you," she remarked. And it was true, since Aria ignored her pain.

"Gauche wouldn't have left his sister alone…"

"Only a lesser man would."

The two of them didn't say anything more and worked on completing the paperwork in front of them. Elsa knew, regardless of what she wanted to do, she hurt Aria a little. But she hoped that they could become better acquainted despite that. Aria seemed, like Gauche thought, kind indeed.

* * *

That talk with Aria seemed to allow her to think about what she wanted to write, and if Gauche proved anything at all, he proved the dedication of the Letter Bees. She wanted to write a publication about Letter Bee's, their burden, the people and their opinion. Suddenly, just wondering about what to write seemed much easier, like a world of possibilities opened up and she had the choice of any topic at all.

She also wanted to thank Jiggy for talking to Aria ahead of time for her, especially on such a clearly painful topic. If anyone's bravery should have been praised, it should have been his.

A little over a week later, Elsa completed her front desk shift, assigning letters to Zazie, and Connor, and Lag Seeing, all the while writing terrible notes on scrap sheets of paper in order to organize her multitude of thoughts. She would need to research about the history of letters too, the significance of them. Tapping her pencil on the wooden desk, she sighed.

"Sighing is unhealthy."

Not even surprised anymore because of how often it happened, she looked up and saw Jiggy. However, her alarm rose because of a different issue altogether. Rather than simply looking tired, as Jiggy often did because of the length of his journeys, his head had been bandaged, shielding an injury on his forehead, though he didn't seem at all phased by it.

"Chastising me about unhealthiness when you've sustained a head wound? You're rather hypocritical, aren't you? Come now, you haven't been taking care of yourself at all, my dear Express Bee," Elsa admonished. Jiggy didn't sustain many injuries in his career at all, which made her worry about this one, even if she didn't let it seep into her tone. The man had a reputation for being invincible, in fact, and people wondered whether there was even a physical possiblty of him gaining any sort of wound. "It looks painful."

"Not really, it's a shallow wound that didn't even need stitches. I was careless while fighting a Gaichuu," he said, in response to her concern. "A doctor already treated it. It's nearly healed."

"You look a little pale and tired. Don't you believe resting would be a good idea?" She frowned, noting that he did indeed seem tired, weak even. "Were you ill?"

"I got a small fever," he admitted, though not even seeing the issue with that. "But I'm alright now."

"Did the doctor say you should rest and clean your head wound?" Elsa asked, narrowing her eyes, suspicious. If he refused to tell her the truth, she would find out, regardless of whether it sounded like she nagged.

"I've done it; it messes with the job." Jiggy looked at her for a moment and noticed her looking tired as well, with raccoon eyes from sleep deprivation. "You should rest."

"Ah, but I'm not injured so I can afford to not sleep." Looking at the bandage and Jiggy's response, she knew he wouldn't take good care of it. Perhaps he had taken good care of it already, but as someone who grew up in Yodaka and saw all the injuries take a turn for the worse because of a shortage of doctors and improper patient care, she wanted to assure that he did. A girl, she remembered, Joanna her name was, back in Cambriel Minute, suffered a wound and died due to infection because she didn't keep it clean and no doctor checked on her. "I'll do you a favour and help you clean your wound, hmm?"

"That seems like a waste of time on your part," Jiggy said in response to her offer.

"I'll decide what time is a waste for me. Let me do this, for my own well-being. I can assure you I won't be able to sleep well unless I check on it. I've seen so many injuries in the head kill a person; haven't you seen similar in Yodaka?" Ignoring the fact that he didn't care whether she came to check or not proved easier because Jiggy truly didn't complain more than he had to. She could imagine if she attempted to treat someone like Zazie, he would throw a temper tantrum. "Where do you live on Crown Sonata- what building?"

She saw how his gaze zoomed in on how she clenched her fists when she talked, how she seemed to blabber on in disjointed sentences that seemed not in the least comprehensive. Perhaps her worry showed more than she would have liked.

"524… apartment's name is Prayer's Summit. Unit 10E. You can just tell the receptionist I'm expecting you."

That probably convinced him to simply let her do what she wanted without rejecting her. Maybe he would feel bad if he did simply reject her. Jiggy knew his wound wasn't serious but he knew of the need clearly, to check. Someone from Yodaka would understand.

"Thank you," Elsa added, when he tipped his hat to her. "For letting me do this even if it isn't necessary. I've seen… a lot happen."

"Our shared pasts affect how we deal with life and what we do," Jiggy said calmly, acknowledging their similarities in where they came from. He made his way to exit, walking with confidence as he so usually did, not at all regretting his decision to have her attend to him later. Harry flew around him freely, making him look quite enigmatic.

"And your past allows you to understand the way people you do…" she whispered to herself.

Just what in his life gave him the experiences to be able to shape his words the way he did, to understand people despite seeming so awkward himself?


	6. The Intertwining Past

**Ink on Paper**

Written by Whimsical Symphony

_Been a while guys, but here is the next chapter of the story. It's mostly Jiggy and Elsa bonding over conversation and I like it for the most part though I wonder again if it's too fluffy. You know when you write something and then post it any something about it seems off? That's always how I feel, especially since this chapter had been half written for the longest time and I kept deleting the second portion like a moron._

_Anyway let me know what you think! I'm glad you all are enjoying this story so much. Jiggy is a pain in the behind to write._

* * *

**Chapter VI - The Intertwining Past **

"Of course he lives in a place like this. I expected it, so I shouldn't be surprised. Come now Elsa, don't be jealous because you live in a rat hole by comparison. You know quite well you look _horrid _in green!" Elsa muttered to herself, standing outside Jiggy's apartment building, cheap first aid supplies in a white case in her hands, before gathering the courage and walking in like a woman on a mission.

She thought she probably scared several people by talking to herself the way she did. But she couldn't help that Jiggy's apartment was so nice, that it reflected the light given by the artificial sun, making its marble facings glow. All the light showed in Elsa's place was the wear and tear, the cracks and mould, the peeling paint and weathered, aged walls. The two buildings really shouldn't have been compared.

The inside was spacious, with leather couches, marble floors and a chandelier. A pretty young woman stood behind a wooden desk, probably to ask the purpose behind each visitor's entrance, who they came to visit. The one who opened the door for Elsa's entrance was a burly man in a button down shirt and slacks. Hesitantly, Elsa walked to the young woman.

"I'm here to see Jiggy Pepper in unit 10E. He told me I can just walk right up," Elsa said, even more self-conscious about her natural Yodakan accent.

Truly, she did try to construct every area of her speech, not wanting people to realize the poverty ridden place she came from, even if it made her shallow. And especially, she didn't want the people who lived in a posh place like this to know. Jiggy, she thought, was different; he wasn't ashamed of being from Yodaka, didn't hide it, though he could have passed as one from Yuusari. Regardless, Jiggy was Jiggy and it ultimately didn't matter, as he ensnared people with his words nonetheless.

"Of course, and you are…?" the woman asked.

"Elsa Marchen. He should be expecting me."

"Yes, he did say you were coming. Please feel free to take the lift up." The young woman gave her a small smile and gestured towards the small hallway where the lift was located. "10E is located on the tenth floor and right after you exit the lift."

"Thank you, miss," Elsa said politely, returning the smile.

She hesitantly made her way to the lift and entered it, clicking the button for the tenth floor and then waited patiently until it reached it. Each time it reached a new floor, it 'pinged', the only sound in the silence. Somehow, she expected more people to be in the lift besides her. Jiggy lived in a rather quiet building it seemed. She wondered if he got along with his neighbours or whether they were more like hers.

The crazy old man who lived next door to her was a miser who didn't particularly like young people living near him, because he absolutely hated loud noises and parties. Elsa assured him she wasn't the type to get drunk and hold parties, and she had a full-paying job and was therefore a fully-fledged adult, but he still didn't particularly trust her and waited patiently for the day when he could file a noise complaint against her.

Getting out when it reached the tenth floor, she took a deep breath and turned right like the lady at the front desk instructed. "Come now Elsa, why are you getting anxious? First you were green with envy and now you're anxious? I never fancied you for the anxious type."

However, she knew that was a lie because she was quite the worry-wart, as most people who talked to themselves in such a manner often were. Soon or later, someone would hear her and peg her as mentally unstable.

Elsa knocked on the dark wooden door a couple times before gathering her bearings and telling herself that she shouldn't have been nervous at all. She only came to ensure Jiggy didn't die or some other such nonsense.

The door opened a few moments later and the man in question silently invited her inside, looking just as exhausted as he did in the near afternoon. She took pity on him, wondering how he was able to even handle such a stressful job. Working as a Letter Bee alone was mentally and physically exhausting and foolhardy, but being an Express Bee required that a person have _no regard whatsoever_ for their own personal health.

She followed him inside and slipped off her shoes in the entryway near the beige doormat. Looking around, she noted his place to be cozier than she would have expected from such a cold, frankly pretentious looking building. It looked homey, somewhat rustic, with a short staircase leading up to a second level, dark hardwood floors and a main sitting area furnished with cozy armchairs and loveseats. A small, arched wooden door connected to a study which she had no doubt in mind Jiggy Pepper didn't use. The chill on her skin from the outside air disappeared more immediately than it had in the main lobby, due to a brick fireplace burning brightly with crackling flames.

Near one of the couches, she saw a tall perch which Harry currently sat upon, crowing loudly at her arrival.

"Nice place you have here, Mr. Pepper. I daresay you have a fine taste in furniture," Elsa pointed out, when he shut the door behind her.

"It's nothing special." Jiggy shrugged. "Make yourself at home."

Elsa looked around the place further, noting it to be rather clean, especially for a man living by himself. But then again she shouldn't have been judging that way either, since she, a woman, often had her place in disarray. Jiggy's place seemed warm, comforting, just a little bit of clutter like a cup he drank coffee out of sitting on the table and a blanket he used on the couch left with folds in the shape of a crescent moon when he threw it off his shoulders.

"That'll be easy to do. It's rather… a friendly looking place. I like it," Elsa couldn't help but say, hugging her arms close to her, wanting to feel warmer than before. "It's different than the cold outside. Or in Yodaka."

Jiggy remained silent for a moment, then glanced at her expression, her lips pulled into a frown. "I wanted it to be as different from Yodaka as possible. That way when Nelli comes here, she won't have to remember it."

Elsa noticed he said 'when' instead of 'if'. One had to hope as much as they could, living in the desolate, lonely world they lived in, hope that everything would in fact turn out for the best. It was terrible that they did in fact have to hope, when people in Akatsuki had no need to. Perhaps she wished to reach the sun if only to relieve herself of these social inequalities, to find a way to believe in the system, to have them legitimize the reason for why conditions were the way they were. The Empress, the mysterious leader of Amberground, surely there was a reason, even if deep down inside her bitterness and resentment made her believe in the woman much less than she perhaps should have.

She saw too much death in Yodaka of the kind that could have been avoided. The kind caused by pure and absolute poverty where in Yuusari, they could have been saved, and in Akatsuki, it was a possibility that no one died at all, that death was some obsolete, foreign concept only experienced outside their secure bubble.

But then, despite all this, Elsa did love the artificial sun, more so since the Day of the Flicker when the world became shrouded in darkness. The fear that they would have no sun anymore made her realize how much she took it for granted. So that reason remained too, to reach Akatsuki so she wouldn't be parted from it: a purely selfish reason.

"I should tend to your wounds first, shouldn't I? It's why I came here after all." Elsa squashed down her nervousness and led Jiggy to one of the leather couches. The man sat without protest and didn't say a word when she set down her little white first-aid kit on the coffee table, and then began to unravel the cloth bandages on his head. "It's rather shallow, but it still looks painful. It's swelling too…"

She saw the doctor shaved some of Jiggy's hair where the wound made its way to his scalp. Elsa saw a shallow, scabbed over gash with much bruising in the general region of his forehead and the front of his scalp that looked much like a child colouring messily in marker, of blues and purples, black, and a tad of green. It honestly seemed quite painful, looking at it. But her imagining such pain now only made her think that Jiggy must have been in quite a lot when he received it, possibly on the verge of passing out. Yet he somehow rode his motorcycle to seek out a doctor. She didn't know whether to accuse him of being inhuman, or whether to praise his tenacity because many people would simply fall asleep, only to find out by practice that they actually sustained a concussion.

"It's not serious. Appearances can be deceiving, never trust what you see on the surface," Jiggy told her, not reacting to her calmly taking out the antiseptic to clean the wound. He didn't hiss when she calmly applied it to his skin, despite the fact that Elsa was certain it burned. Afterwards, she applied a balm to make the ache from the swollen region dissipate somewhat. "You're used to treating injuries like this."

"Yodaka needs everyone to know how to take care of basic wounds. Contacting doctors is near impossible, or when they are available, some refuse to treat people because we don't have the money. When someone is in a life or death situation, sometimes we only do the best we can." Working with her hands, she wrapped the bandage around his head. Musing over the fact that Jiggy's hair actually seemed softer to the touch than plenty of women, she silently continued to work. "I've no doubt you've experienced the same."

Jiggy remained silent for a minute before he added, "Darkness leads to loneliness, isolation, and in that comes injury of the body and the heart."

Elsa snorted, trying not to be awed by his advice that would have made someone like Zazie either squeal like a little girl or melt into a puddle of goo. The boy was Jiggy's most dedicated fan, and somehow, she did want to see the two of them talk. She predicted that it would be either a one sided conversation from Zazie's end, or neither would talk because Zazie would get tongue-tied around his hero.

"Some people are closer to the light and still feel the need to injure themselves, correct Jiggy?" Elsa gave him a scathing look. If it were anyone else that received that look, she thought they might've looked at least a little bit sheepish, but not ever stoic Jiggy Pepper. She finished tying the bandage and exclaimed, "Finished!"

"Thanks." He nodded at her and gave her a miniscule smile. Elsa wondered if he attempted to work at looking _cool _in front of the mirror on his days off. It would explain how effortlessly he handled what should be considered a mere façade. Despite how inept he was at basic conversation, the man made up for it with _poetry_ and a smile that made one think that just by viewing it, they potentially travelled up a few rungs in social standing. Even his perceived flaws, he somehow made up for. His messy hair made him have a devil-may-care attitude instead of looking like a lazy bum like most would, especially since Jiggy was more of a workaholic than a lazy-bum, if she could judge by his current state. "If you want dinner, I ordered in some pasta earlier. It's sitting in the kitchen."

Her stomach rumbled lightly almost in reply to his statement. She was tired, and hungry, and therefore truly didn't want to go through the trouble of stepping out the door and buying her usual nutrient-lacking food. Eating here seemed the much more logical choice, especially since Jiggy asked, and offered much better food.

"Thank you, my dear Express Bee. How kind of you. Shall I heat you up a bowl too?" Elsa asked, smiling. Wanting to tease him then, she ruffled his hair and said, "The injured need to eat to get better. Wouldn't you agree, hmm?"

"If you don't mind." Strangely enough, Jiggy let her do what she wanted with his hair. His eyes closed and he seemed like he enjoyed it, for just a little. Physical contact must have been sparse for him indeed. He looked every bit like a child, vulnerable and innocent at that moment. "Thanks."

Elsa chuckled, and moved to serve them both the pasta sitting in take-out boxes on the kitchen counter. Rather a nice change from bread and fish and rice – this meal seemed both hearty and warm, and Jiggy ordered enough for two people. He did wish to eat with her, she thought as she smiled.

* * *

They spent time just like that, sitting and eating like old friends, across from one another at the wooden table in the dining area outside the kitchen, reminiscing over old times.

Elsa wondered when it became such a common day to day activity to spend time with Jiggy like this, when they actually became friends, if she were brave enough to call it that. The last she remembered, she lived life alone doing nothing but boring paperwork and reception jobs around the Hive all day, occasionally spending time with Mana and the few people she knew from her work at the bar. To have friends, she thought, was odd, at least in the sense of friendship that occurred with Jiggy.

Naturally, because of his rather unsociable personality, Elsa imagined him to want as little time spent with her as possible. But he humoured her every time, and dare she say it, enjoyed the time they spent together. Even though it was always her talking about how Yodaka was lonely, and how she didn't want her time spent in Yuusari to be the same, and Jiggy said he understood, Elsa never imagined that perhaps, he felt lonely too.

"Jiggy, do you consider us friends? I daresay you've humoured me quite a bit, wouldn't you say?" Elsa asked bluntly. She definitely wasn't the type to be green with envy, or act anxious – neither was she the type to beat around the bush. Perhaps she should have been applauded, for asking such a thing to intimidating Jiggy Pepper, a person who most in Yuusari would wet themselves before asking such a question. "I'm curious."

Jiggy pondered over her question seriously, having himself a sip of water before answering, "I don't talk to that many people."

"And what does that mean?" Elsa raised an eyebrow, wondering if _he _was the type to beat around the bush before issuing her a harsh, callous rejection, shattering her heart in to many, many pieces. The thought made her want to laugh. "Does that mean you are my friend, or my acquaintance, or should I act like a jilted lover now?" Putting on an expression of feigned hurt, she cried, "Oh, so _cruel_, my dear Express Bee, you know how I love you so!"

To his credit, Jiggy didn't even flinch, used to her antics by now, not that he hadn't been at the beginning. Elsa suspected that none of this would have shocked him no matter at what point in their actuaintance she decided to lay it on him. Jiggy predicted he couldn't take her seriously, not with her acting like that. He was strangely good at understanding people after all.

He looked at her with those beautiful teal coloured eyes of his and replied without any hesitancy, "You're a friend. I don't know why you'd think different."

"Could this be," Elsa started, gasping, "you've fallen for me too?"

"No, I haven't," Jiggy responded calmly. "Cut the crap."

Elsa chuckled, continuing to eat her pasta. Her heart warmed at his words nonetheless. He considered her a friend, and wondered why she even thought they weren't. Jiggy was indeed quite unfamiliar with how other people reacted to him at the Hive, how to call oneself a friend of Jiggy Pepper would have been indeed a high honour. Zazie would be one such person to faint at an opportunity like that.

Elsa observed the cross shaped scar on his face that ran on the skin below and above his eye, so uncomfortably close. "Out of curiosity then, as a friend, where did you receive that scar of yours? It looks like it must have bee painful."

Indeed, it made her a little uncomfortable looking at it, and the bandages around his head. To see injuries like that in a place like Amberground could do nothing but make her feel hollow inside. It was lonely, and physical injuries seemed to be a manifestation of mental wounds. It reminded her of the danger they lived in each and every day because of Gaichuu, and how people in the capital lived in ignorance of it all, dismissing their suffering like it wasn't anything. Each time she sat down to have a meal, a warm and comforting meal like just now, she remembered any second and something horrible could happen, people could die just like they did in large numbers every day.

His lips tightened into a thin line before he said, "I saved Nello from a Gaichuu, when we lived in Kyrie."

"Did I step on another landmine? I apologize, I was merely curious and you well know I don't know how to be tactful," Elsa told him, recognizing that when he talked about his siblings, especially Nello, it must've hurt him.

"It's not a big deal," Jiggy told her, as if to reassure her, keep her from feeling too much of the guilt she was so prone to feeling. While Elsa pushed each individual penne to and fro in the bowl, feeling it festering within her nonetheless, Jiggy continued, "Ask what you want. I said if I don't want to answer I won't."

"But I brought up Nello again… there I go, stupid me," she exclaimed, voice drenched in regret. How could she be so horrible, to bring it up multiple times? "It isn't as if… I want my past in Yodaka brought up to me all the time, and yet I do this to you. It's insensitive."

"Being too sensitive fogs up the glass so you can't see what's on the other side." Once again, his words seemed abstract, metaphorical, and she take a moment to wonder about what he meant.

Elsa supposed this was a strategy of his, and if so then perhaps he was much more skilled at communication than she thought.

Communication… of course, he meant _communication_. "You mean that if I am so worried about being overly polite all the time, then we won't communicate properly. And I won't understand you."

Jiggy didn't reply, but with his lack of reply, she assumed that to be affirmative. Instead, he continued on from their previous conversation since she asked so carelessly about Nello, about Kyrie, about his old past in Yodaka, shrouded in shadow because of the lack of light from the artificial sun. Except perhaps, the reason why he was so willing to talk about it was because his past was his future, if he didn't have Nello then he wouldn't be Jiggy; those memories made him who he was, just like he told her in front of her apartment building not too long ago.

"It's why I became a Letter Bee. One of them finished it off – I was useless without a Shindanjuu. I wasn't strong enough for them, so I left Kyrie," Jiggy said, vaguely enough so he didn't talk about the whole experience, but enough so that she knew. Elsa imagined a Gaichuu, a little boy in the way, and Jiggy rushing to save him and getting that scar in the process – she didn't particularly need any more information than that. Talking about it pained him, yet he did so anyway. "All shields are different, some are useless, some are sturdy, because of how they're built."

"And getting stronger meant becoming a more useful shield. As a brother you wanted to protect them," Elsa finished, observing the brief flitting of nostalgia across his features.

He really did do everything for his siblings, and to learn that Nello died during his absence, she could only imagine that he blamed himself for it.

"Looks like a close call," Elsa noted instead, so as to not bring up his sadness to him. "Your eyesight could have…"

"It was close. There was blood, and Nello screamed. I blacked out. They said I was lucky to have my sight," Jiggy commented, in answer to her question. He paused briefly when he commented on Nello's screams, and Elsa imagined that it haunted him now, a fell voice on the air, a vengeful ghost of his past. "What about your past?"

"Hmm?" Elsa looked at him, a tad confused.

Finishing up her meal, she moved to put that bowl in the sink, as if to distract herself from the less than cheery conversation. Wanting to soak Jiggy's dish too, she found that he hadn't yet finished eating, so she took a seat across from him at the table and awaited his question.

"Your family, did you live with them?" Jiggy asked softly, rather uncharacteristic of him.

Elsa knew by how he phrased the question, just how many of them had been orphans in Yodaka. It wasn't a question about asking about one's family – it went straight to asking about what happened to them, whether they had the luxury of living together as so many didn't have. Family, how she felt some strange longing for that word when she didn't quite recognize it. She knew the concept, but never truly understood those bonds of love and affection, to have maternal and paternal love showered upon her.

"I didn't. I'm an orphan," Elsa said sadly. Well, she couldn't change what she was. But then she thought of how he phrased the question again, how he spoke of his past, and asked, "You too?"

Jiggy simply nodded. Resting his chin on the palm of his hand, a little tiredly, he said, "And Nello and Nelli too. Family is a choice like a lot of things."

Then it occurred to her, that he pointed them out because they weren't related to him biologically, but it didn't mean much to him. He loved them all the same. And that affection made family what it was, blood being irrelevant in the matter. How did he know that she still wondered what family felt like now, a true biological family, any of that. She'd been socially stunted, never knew how to properly make friends, no one did any of that for her properly. Well except one person.

"I suppose I… had a few people like that – family, I mean. There was a kind old woman named Luciel Sevante who took me in – taught me to read and write, taught me history and all of that; I got my interest in history from her. I'd been abandoned by my parents when I was a child. As expected, in Yodaka, children are seen as extra mouths to feed," Elsa explained; it all came back to her with vengeance, the cold air, no home, until that old lady took her in. The memories flitted around her mind, this way and that, chilled her heart a little too much to be comfortable. "I lived on the streets before then, finding whatever food I could. Then, she passed away and I went back to whatever horrid living conditions I came from. I missed it – the old lady had books for me to read and made me humble home-cooked food. It was warm. All of us street urchins worked together after that, and we mostly ate bread – pilfered it."

"What happened to them?" he asked, oddly enough. Elsa thought he wouldn't be interested, but perhaps he was, not merely asking out of some sort of obligation he had because he shared bits of his past, spoke about his brother who passed away.

"Illness took many of them, Gaichuu took others, then we all separated somehow. The usual, for us. And so, I decided to leave the town and Yodaka for good, I wanted to work at the Hive. I tool what tests I had to and left. I'd always been intelligent, if nothing else." It didn't feel quite as painful talking about all of it to someone who clearly experienced the same thing. She remembered the faces of all those children – Anya's pretty smile, Killi's freckles. Somehow, she'd been one of the few left and then the group entirely broke apart after some time. "It's strange talking about this now."

"You can't escape your past. You'll always be from Yodaka." Jiggy rose from his seat and put his dish as well in the sink, soaking both of them with water, leaving to wash them later. His words rang true, as they always did. Perhaps she had been trying in her own little way to escape, to try to be from Yuusari, to pretend, just so that she didn't have to remember any of it. "You can let go, but you can't escape. The past is tied to the future."

"You're correct. But I find that with you, I'm not. It's not quite as hard to talk about it when I know you've experienced the same. And you shared some of your past with me too, and for that I'm grateful, my dear Express Bee." Perhaps he expected some kind of spiel about how she'd fallen for him, because he looked at her rather oddly, and Elsa didn't want to make it seem like he was intimidating or frightening, or Empress forbid _ugly, _because he wasn't at all, but his gaze was piercing and rather unnerving. Elsa thought it almost too ironic that it resembled the knowing gaze of a hawk, the same as his dingo partner. When she looked at Harry, who seemed to be preening himself, he looked at her with those same eyes. "Thank you."

"You don't need to," he responded with one of his enigmatic smiles. "Friends should know more about each other."

Jiggy acknowledged it, Elsa thought with surprise, he acknowledged it without her having to bring it up. Perhaps this talk did do them some good, through the pain they got closer to one another. It still comforted her, to have someone from her kind of background in Yuusari, someone from Yodaka who knew about the poverty there, the misery, the darkness. Or rather, he wasn't just _someone _anymore, he was a friend.

"Hearing you say that makes me blush indeed, Jiggy. Are you attempting to lead me on?" Elsa joked also sitting up and then walking to the door and slipping on her shoes. "I suppose I should head home now, as all is finished and I've taken care of your injury like I meant to."

Jiggy followed her to the door and opened it for her. "Thanks for that."

"Friends should always take care of one another, wouldn't you say?" Elsa eyed the bandage and said, "I would feel guilty if I didn't do anything about it. Seeing you injured is rather… out of place. I was shocked."

Perhaps she sounded more worried than she initially planned to sound, because he looked almost concerned when he looked at her – and it was preposterous for an injured person to feel sorry for someone completely well. "I'll do my best not to let it happen again. I was careless."

"You were," Elsa told him bluntly, supporting the fact that he scolded himself.

She could have sworn he laughed a little, just a breathy chuckle but something at least. Making Jiggy laugh made her feel like she was Amberground's greatest comedian.

"You'll be alright getting home." He said it like a statement, like he said most things like that, but she saw it like it was.

Jiggy wanted to know whether he needed to walk her back. Considerate, just like most people didn't think of him as. She remembered telling Aria much the same, that he went above and beyond for people when he perhaps shouldn't have. Or rather, he did what he wanted when he wanted and nobody could stop him.

"I got here on my own two legs didn't I? And besides, injured men should be resting, not taking a stroll outside." Elsa glared at him meaningfully. "You will be resting, won't you?"

"I had a lot of deliveries, I'm tired," he agreed with her. Indeed he rather did look exhausted and she wondered yet again how Express Bees even did their jobs without collapsing into a heap on the ground to take a nap in Gaichuu territory.

"I'll hold you to it. Goodbye, my dear Express Bee." Smiling at him once more, she walked out the door and was halted by his voice.

"See you around, Elsa."

Inside the elevator, Elsa thought that it really did make her pleased that they had the talk she did. Rather than Jiggy just being able to read her like a book, perhaps she'd be able to understand him a bit more too. Elsa needed to work harder to understand the enigma that was Jiggy Pepper, or else she couldn't truly call him a friend.


End file.
